Help Like You
by gliitch
Summary: If he keeps finding ways back then there's really only one way to keep Voltaire away for good. He's come to the same conclusion about them.
1. Breaking the Slience

**Gliitch: **Hey, this is my first fanfic but unlike everyone else, I'm not gonna ask you to be nice to me! Cool huh? If you wanna leave a great review, that's great! If you wanna leave a big burning flame, by all means! If you couldn't care less and just wanna read the story well that's fine too!

**Megsy: **….ahem

**Gliitch: **Oh! Right! Everyone note, this is Megsy, you have her to thank for kicking my ass into gear, she will be the one who makes sure I actually finish what I started here.

**Megsy: **Darn right, so stop stalling and get on with the fic

(Twists Gliitch's ears round)

**Gliitch: **Owie owie ow! I'm doin' it already!

**Help Like You**

Chapter 1: Breaking the Silence

Kai watched the golden leaves around him shift as a light breeze moved in from the east. He turned his head into the chilling wind to see the orange sun rising over the trees that lined the park. They were well into autumn now, but the cold edge on the air never bothered him in the slightest, not after Russia. Kai had been out for many hours now, just to get some more practice with his blade before the day started, he had flown in late last night from some place in France where he had been taking care of a few things, and as he would be taking residence in Tyson's later this evening, saw no point in booking a hotel just for a few hours. He had decided to stop about ten minutes ago, so he now leant against the dimming lamp by the path in the park, enjoying this rare silence. For with no one around, that is all that there was, not even the birds stirred at this moment in time.

Such a scene, it tugged at something in Kai, nagging at him in the very back of his mind. He closed his scarlet eyes hoping that it may be helpful to his broken memory, but whatever it was he had forgotten was not to be remembered today as his concentration was broken by a faint sound. Eyes snapping open in annoyance he looked around, looking for the source of noise. It was now that he grew a little more annoyed, for it was no rustling leaves or wakening bird that had stirred him from his thoughts, but more another person here, at dawn, not only disturbing his focus but also his peace, quiet and privacy.

He scanned his eyes around trying to lay them on the offender using his ears to give him a rough direction. His eyes settled on the bridge that lay a little way up the path, allowing it to move over the strong current of the river. There by the railing, he laid eyes upon a girl, who rested her hands upon the bar, staring down at the rushing water, speaking out loud as if having a conversation with some other unseen person. Kai was a little shocked that he had not heard her approach, but shrugged it off and moved forward in order to take a better look.

She seemed to be about his age, perhaps a little younger, but this he couldn't determine properly as a deep purple fringe covered her eyes, so he could only really tell by her height, voice tone and development, which incidentally, was a fair bit more generous than most girls. Her height matched his but her voice though serious and cold like his own was a little younger sounding. He contemplated moving closer so that he could hear what she was saying, but decided against it, for now he would continue to investigate her via appearance. For someone to be out this early was uncommon and there were a number of unsavoury reasons for her to be there, the fact that she was talking endlessly to the open air did not help her case, if she were insane it would be unwise to approach.

Continuing his analysis, he saw that the long hairs that covered her face were in fact escapees from a lengthy ponytail that had been tied high and fell all the way down the girl's back. After his eyes had followed her hair to the tops of her hips, they climbed up again stopping at her neck where Kai saw a pale grey turtle neck reach up to the girl's neck, where it splayed out a little due to a choker of darker grey that had a flat circular plate holding it together at the front about the size of a twenty pence piece. **(1)** The plate was a soft blue in colour with perhaps a few hints of brown and red striking through it, under this light these latter colours appeared to be moving, but Kai passed it off as a trick of the light and moved on.

The top she was wearing was a very cool grey that stopped at the top of her shoulders to reveal the pale peachy complexion on her slender arms. Kai moved his eyes downward only to find that the same cool grey from the previously inspected garment had reappeared five inches down the line from her shoulder, it continued all the way down to her hand to reveal itself as a long fingerless glove. With a quick glance at the girl's other hand, he saw that she did indeed wear an identical glove on that side.

Kai moved his attention back to the rest of her clothing to find that her shirt extended down a little further than her hair, and from underneath came the continuation of a pair of cargo trousers, these too were a cool grey but much darker than her shirt and gloves; evidently the waistband of the trousers were hidden beneath the end of her top. Kai let his eyes slip further down and saw that large baggy pockets resided on her trouser-bum, and what seemed to be fairly deep pockets were positioned round the front. A further set of baggy pockets were set further down; one on the side of each knee. Kai's gaze had now descended to her feet where he saw a pair of trainers that had obviously been thoroughly worn in, but through the ware, he detected that these were a further _third_ shade of cool grey, situated evenly between the first two. Whoever this girl was, she didn't appear dangerous, so Kai carefully approach a little closer, just enough to hear what was being said.

"-so here we all are, ready to go for the gold. I know what you're thinking, and yeah, I'm a little surprised at me too. I never thought I'd be back here doing this, not after what happened, but I suppose it's different this time, the whole situation, the whole _purpose_, it's just not the same this time. The thing I find I'm least; believing, is that I'm here working _with_ them, I was so sure that I would have been too scared to take on another team; well, if not scared then guilty. I suppose that there really isn't any reason to be so surprised though, after all, I said I no longer fought for _him_, I never said I would quit all together, I fight for them now, no more mistakes-"

"-you know, talking to yourself is one of the first signs of madness." Kai smirked. After listening for a little while, he decided that she wasn't dangerous, actually from the sound of it, she seemed to be blader, a little bitter about something but a blader all the same. Judging from her accent, it also appeared that she was British, but her accent was far from that of the annoying commoners he had met the last time he had travelled to London, nor was it snobbish and overly posh; it seemed she was just quite naturally aware of her pronunciation. No matter, she was not dangerous, and he wished to make fun of her as payment for disturbing him. However, the girl responded by not even bothering to look up, and then proceeding to answer back with great calmness.

"It can hardly be named as talking to oneself if another was listening now can it? And I'll assume you _were _listening, otherwise you would not be able to inform me that I was supposedly performing such an action." Kai was slightly taken aback, but refused to let her win now.

"Of course I never _actually_ said that it was you who was speaking with yourself."

"You did imply it though."

"Perhaps then, you should learn that implications are not always reliable."

"I learnt that a long time ago, perhaps you should learn to say exactly what you are thinking, to save future debate. Whilst you're at it, you may also care to note that even if words are also not infallible trust-wise." Kai who had been moving steadily closer during the conversation now stopped and stared a few steps onto the bridge. He couldn't think of a comeback.

"Hn." He grunted looking downstream. The girl moved away from the rail and turned to face Kai, and he moved is face toward her once again.

"Of course this entire conversation has been quite pointless considering that you actually _did_ mean me," she smirked walking towards and then past the dual-haired teen, once a few steps of the bridge she stopped, then continued talking with her back turned but with her head facing to the left slightly so Kai could just see the side of her face and very small silver hoop descending from her earlobe "and if merely talking to myself is the _first _sign of madness, how far down the list does openly arguing with a hallucination who talks to herself come?"

With that she strutted away down the path, leaving Kai on the bridge, alone, trying to figure out what had just happened.

**Gliitch: **Yay! I finished the chapter!

(Dances with glee)

**Megsy: **Yes very good, now get the next chapter done.

**Gliitch: **Sigh yeah sure but first I got a big favour to ask of all my beautiful/handsome readers!

**Megsy: **Yea?

**Gliitch: **Yeah! You see, do you remember back in the chapter when I put in one of these; **(1)**

**Megsy: **Yeah what _was _that?

**Gliitch: **Well, that's what I'm about to explain. You see, I'm very aware that as Kai has spent most of his life in either Japan or Russia, he _wouldn't_ have had enough contact with a twenty-pence piece to compare the plate on the girl's necklace to one, so for those of you who _do_ know the size of a twenty-pence piece, if you could make some reviews giving me suggestions on what he _would_ have compared it to, that would be great.

**Megsy: **You done?

**Gliitch: **Almost, just one more thing…

**Megsy: **What now?

**Gliitch: **I just want to let all my lovely readers know that this story _does_ have pairings, many, many, pairings. No, I won't tell you what they are, I like leaving you in suspense.

(Evil laugh)

**Megsy: **Don't worry, if she tries anything stupid, I'll hit her for you

**Gliitch: **Isn't it weird how I wouldn't be able to make it through life without you, but that you're also the one who causes most of my injuries?

**Megsy: **Where else would you getter your fix for bitter irony?

**Gliitch: **Touché


	2. BugCatching

**Gliitch: **Okay, I know I'm lax on the reviewing thing but _come on_, I was _hoping_ for a little more enthusiasm than _that_.

**Megsy**Come on, it was the first chap and it was hardly that long, I don't think it even achieved anything apart from pissing Kai off or-

**Gliitch: **Hush, evil woman

**Megsy: ** Right, ok. Don't you have something you need to say to your very small band of readers?

**Gliitch: **(glare) Sure. For this story, as it all starts with Tyson in Japan, everyone will always be speaking in Japanese, unless I say otherwise with the exception of this chapter, from the point where it states that a person speaks in English, it's all English form that point until stated otherwise, the same goes for other chaps but this one has the most English.

**Help Like You**

Chapter 2: Bug-catching

Kenny sat down on a bench just down the road from Tyson's dojo; he had been there for a while now, making calculations and adjustments to some data of some sort. He _had_ been planning to drop by early so that if anyone else decided to do so also, he could make more accurate observations to any new improvements and weaknesses in any new techniques the team may have developed individually whilst away. A few months after the 'Justice 5' match, everyone had gone their separate ways, Max had gone to New York to visit his Mum, Rei had gone to China to visit his old village, and Kai, well, he didn't know where Kai had gone but he doubted it was back to Russia. Hardly Kai's favourite place.

Now that there was a new tournament on its way, the Bladebreakers were ready to re-group and go in to defend their champion title, once again; but hopefully this time wouldn't call for any fighting evil, saving the world or destroying the bio-vault and its operators. Well that was the hope. However, Kenny had wholly decided against paying an early visit to Tyson's when he had many yells and screams from within, it seemed Mr Granger had once again launched a surprise attack on his grandson, and nowadays this was followed by a full-blown, full-contact training session. Tyson would probably be doing a lot more damage than usual today due to the fact that he was a little upset that Daichi would not be returning for the tournament.

When news of the tournament had reached wherever in the world Daichi had wandered off to, an e-mail had reached Kenny saying that he would not be joining the team this year and that he gave his apologies for not being there to 'whoop Tyson's cocky ass' before they even had time to find and ask him what he planned on doing. So now, with Tyson flailing about with anger, it was probably not the best idea to drop in and find himself covered in bruises, he would wait until lunch was over. At this thought, he looked at Dizzi's clock to find it was about half eleven, a few more hours and it should be safe to go in; a perfect amount of time for Kenny to finish whatever the hell he was doing.

As he turned back to his work, he noticed that Dizzi was now moving a little slower than she should, she was still very fast but something was wrong.

"Dizzi?" he questioned, it was probably nothing but it was better safe than sorry.

"If you're wondering about the sudden drop of speed chief, then that would be my fault."

"Why? What is it?"

"I don't know; I was checking the firewall because something in my database didn't feel right, but I couldn't find anything, if you could manually double-check because I still don't feel so g-ah!"

"Dizzi!?"

"Kenny you better get something done quickly or else all my data is history, and I might be too! Everything in the database is being removed by some kind of virus, it's completely destroyed a path through your firewall but I didn't notice until I found where it stopped." Kenny didn't need telling twice, from the second Dizzi had been cut off in the middle of her sentence he had started tapping away madly at his keyboard, the virus was already on his system but it wasn't acting like a real virus. It had come in as something so small it wasn't even detected, and the minute it had found his database it had started replicating and attaching itself to every file in range, it was behaving more or less like a _real illness_.

"Hey Chief! You want the good news or bad news?"

"_Good _news! I really need the _good_ news!" Kenny screeched frantically still trying to hack his way through the problem and at least cut it off.

"The _good_ news is: the virus is leaving!"

"Dare I ask the _bad _news?" Kenny asked, still a little shrill but at least it was at normal volume now.

"MY DATA'S GOING WITH IT!" The laptop cried out and before Kenny could do anything she had started speaking again in a very depressed sort of tone, "it's too late chief the data's gone."

"As long as that was a wireless signal, and I assume it was because I see no wires trailing from your laptop, then it is most _definitely not gone_!" A voice sounded from a little way down the path coming from the opposite direction to Tyson's getting louder and louder as its owner got closer and closer. The voice Kenny heard was female and very British, in the way most Americans sounded when they were making fun of how the English spoke, but there was just a small hint of _realism_ to it that made her sound quite genuine. He also noted that she _was_ actually speaking in English.

Kenny looked to see a young teenage girl, scurrying up the path, her light brown hair, perhaps a shade or two darker than his own had been tied back in some kind of half pony-tail bun-thing, and now the tied hair form messy but trendy spikes behind her head. The rest of her hair fell about her shoulders, perfectly straight and it shone under the autumn sun. Her sky blue eyes were focused directly ahead of her on the floor through a pair of large round glasses and she held a determined smile on her face. As she ran she held her left hand as high above her head as her arm would allow.

Around her wrist was some kind of bracelet, but if Kenny squinted and looked closely, he could see that across the outside were many flashing lights and even very small circuit boards. On hinges on the side facing away from him, Kenny could see two more metal pieces that moved back to back to make some kind of squashed 'v' shape. The inner side of this 'v' was silver and shiny, whereas the outer side, as in the sides closer to the rest of the bracelet, were also covered on lights and circuit boards. The girl now reached the spot at which she had been staring, and she moved her hand right up and yelled a series of commands.

"Fudd! Activate: data recovery: wireless! Activate: firewall! Version: Spider-trap!" As she yelled a blue static appeared around the spires of the 'v' and appeared to be being drawn in, at the same time, what sounded like a loud whistle sounded, but it was slightly distorted, (think of a dialling tone for the internet, but jumpy like the sound's coming from a bad free-view box)

"Excusé moi, mademoiselle, but er, le firewall appears to be 'aving some trouble," A young male's French accent sounded out from no where, speaking in reasonably clear English, "l'amount of informasion zat needs to be feeltered ees too much to safely store whilst trying to track le virus, we reesk losing le dateur."

"I can't connect the data-ports with only one hand, is there no way you can do it via remote?" The girl's voice was steady, and focused, as if her whole life depended on beating this virus.

"My apologies, mademoiselle, but le virus and protectsion of so much dateur ees currently occupying too much of my 'ard drive to take on more tasks." At this, Dizzi decided that she was _not_ going to allow _any_ of her data to get away.

"Hey Chief! That data _came_ from my disk, so I'd be surprised if it didn't still fit!" The boy looked down at his laptop.

"Right!" He yelled has he finally caught on, "Dizzi open your data-cable access!" Obediently, Dizzi allowed a small electronic door to open at the side just next to her CD drive, and from it, came the tip of a cable. Setting Dizzi on the bench, Kenny grabbed the cable and started to run for the girl, and having already been listening, she was ready for him.

"Fudd! Activate: data-port!"

"Oui, mademoiselle." At the front of her wrist, a small hole opened on the bracelet, and from it extended a small antenna. Kenny spotted this, but quickly realised something else; she was already taller than him, but with his target up in the air like that.

'_No! I__ have worked too hard with Dizzi, spent too many hours compiling that data for my friends, I am NOT…ABOUT TO…LOSE IT!" _ Kenny screamed within his own head, and with the last words made a leap for the girl's hand. Wrapping his free hand round the back of her wrist to hold it steady, he rammed the cable onto the port before he fell to the floor. The shock of what he had just done, paralysed him momentarily, but he just managed to turn his head up admirably to this young girl when that French voice once again flew to his ears.

"Mademoiselle, le dateur 'as been stored safely on le unidentified external storage, also, I detect no more dateur wizin zis area, le virus ees retreating." The girl let out a sigh of relief, but did not lower her hand.

"Activate: mosquito virus." She sighed breathlessly, with that, a small amount of red static escaped the 'v,' and vanished. It was now that she finally lowered her hand, the released data-cable snapped back to its small opening in the laptop, which automatically closed; the 'v' now separated and swung round so that each end met on the other side of the bracelet. If Kenny had not just witnessed the device in action, he would never have thought it more than a silver bangle.

"Wow, thanks." Kenny breathed. He looked up at the girl from his position on the floor, finally taking her in properly. She wore a sleeveless top, meadow green in colour that stretched down to meet a bright apricot-beige skirt that reached halfway down her shin. Her feet were adorned with sandals, where the soles and base were designed to look like cork in both texture and colour, a thick green band the same as her shirt held each shoe in place upon its rightful foot. To be truthful, she was beautiful on her own, but now, at this moment, the sun descended down on her caressing her skin and body with a rich, sepia glow that made her look so unreal, so unworldly. With the light October breeze delicately blowing at her hair and skirt, and that sweet smile and those kind eyes; in Kenny's opinion, she could quite easily have been some kind of stray angel.

"No problem," she smiled, "hey, you okay?" It was now that Kenny noticed that not only had he been staring at her for some time now, but that he was blushing furiously as well.

"I-I'm fine," he stuttered scrambling to his feet a hastily returning to Dizzi to check her files. Finding everything in order, he turned to the girl and made a nervous attempt to engage her in conversation, "s-so, uh, um-" The girl's smile grew wider and her eyes filled with some kind of knowing.

"Call me John," she laughed, "no need to introduce yourself, I recognise you! You're Kenny right? Of the Bladebreakers? Or do you prefer Chief?" Kenny stopped for a second, before letting himself relax.

"Kenny's fine, but most people call me Chief. So, um, _John_," he smiled, "what was that 'mosquito command' you yelled out?"

"Oh, that's my special virus, here let me show you," with this she sat down next to Kenny on the bench, pulling a laptop of her own out from behind her where it had apparently been strapped. She opened it up to show a diagram of what looked like a large spider-web.

"This is my firewall; it's called 'Spider-trap.' Most viruses are designed to plug into the first network they find, and then to do whatever it is that that particular virus is designed to do. My 'spider-trap' mimics a server therefore causing the virus to plug onto the firewall instead of my system where it is then drained and destroyed but there are different kinds of virus designed to plug into different kinds of server, the web therefore, must also actively change shape. In this way, my firewall is also like the human body, memory cells mean that the web can quickly change to catch the virus, but it won't work as well with a new virus, my mosquito copies the virus and allows me to analyse it.

In this way, I can determine whether the virus was sent specifically to a server, or just general, I can also determine who sent it, where from, how it works and so on, of course it all depends on how much of an expert the culprit is. If they know what they're doing, then such information won't be available to me just by copying the virus."

"Unfortunately, mademoiselle, zat appears to be le case, I can barely extract enough dateur to make an efficient plug in le 'spider-trap.' Even zen, I still only 'ave enough dateur to prolong le effect of le virus."

"Okay then Fudd, merci, if you could please do me the kindness of making a copy of the plug for Mr. Kenny here."

"Oui mademoiselle, am I correct in assuming zat you would also like for me to send it le gentleman's server?"

"Yes please, if of course Mr. Kenny would like it? It is your server after all Chief."

"Yeah that would be a great help." After everything had been sent through and loaded, 'John' stood up.

"Well, I suppose I better be off, I'm quite late." With that she started walking away, and Kenny had done nothing, but now he screwed up is fists and jumped up and yelled so loud and fast without thinking that it didn't even come out in English.

"CanIhaveyoure-mail?" He shouted after her, when he realised that in is rush and panic he had spoken in Japanese. He had however, succeeded in making her turn round and walk back, so he decided to repeat himself, but before he could open his mouth, a piece of paper was being waved in front of it.

"Sure, here you go." With that, she walked away again. All Kenny could do was stare at her; Japanese, _perfect_ Japanese.

**Megsy: **Umm, isn't this pairing a little…_obvious_ for you?

**Gliitch: **Nothing is obvious with me; I haven't even decided what's going to happen to Kenny.

**Megsy: **I suppose, hey guys, a_ few_ more reviews this time or Gliitch will cry; I hate it when she cries, it takes away my right to kill her


	3. Laughing Takes the Pain Away

**Gliitch: **I never got anymore reviews…but oh well never mind!

**Megsy: **I suppose there's a reason you're so happy?

**Gliitch: **Someone put my fic on alert! I'm so happy!

(Hugs person who shall remain nameless for the sake of their privacy)

**Megsy: **The fic, now

**Gliitch: **Alright, alright already. This chap is gonna be a lot shorter ok, should be fun though.

**Help Like You**

Chapter 3: Laughing Takes the Pain Away

Tyson growled as his stomach grumbled with hunger; he sighed and moved to pull out his wallet. He had come out to get away from Gramps and was now in town, feeling very hungry having skipped lunch to do so. His face fell and he lets out a comical whimper when he realised that he had left his wallet at home in is rush to escape the dojo, money included. _Now_ what was he going to do? Starve to death?! He was about to drown in despair when a small giggle pulled him from his thoughts.

Tyson looked up to see a young girl of about fifteen, she was a little shorter than Tyson and looked up at him with meadow green eyes, hand delicately pressed over her mouth in a futile attempt to keep from giggling. Most of this hand was swamped in the sleeve of a cotton jumper, pastel yellow in colour, allowing his eyes to take her in completely he noted she wore a short pleated skirt in a pastel shade of pink, and apricot-beige ballet flats. Her hair was a dirty-blonde colour and fell around her face and halfway down her back, shining in the sun that had briefly appeared from its sanctuary behind the clouds.

_'She's such a Hillary,'_ Tyson thought, then shuddered inwardly, _'great, that means she's gonna start judging me on something I supposedly did wrong, what fun; either that or she's about to go all fan-girl on me.'_ He was wrenched from his thoughts when he noted that the girl had stopped giggling and was now looking a little concerned, yet evil at the same time, it was a curious combination until he realised the reasoning; he had been staring at her pretty hard for a while now, it would make anyone feel uneasy. Before he could apologise the girl flew into a new fit of giggles which quickly morphed into a full-blown laugh, and quite a pretty one at that.

As the girls knees started to give way from all the laughter, Tyson darted forward as fast as he could and caught her. She fell backwards into his left arm and used both her hands to hold tightly onto his right arm which he had moved around in front of her to try and support her more. Her knees were bent and her legs fell sideways onto the floor, sloping downward until only her feet were making contact, but they were horizontal and not taking weight.

Tyson tried his best to get her to stand but nearly collapsed himself sending the girl into a whole new wave of laughter; given his previous failure, Tyson now opted to simply lower her gently to the floor, he knelt down as he placed her there and crawled from his position behind the girl to in front and to the side where he assumed some sort of frog-position, staring at her with wide curious eyes. After some time, she stopped laughing and looked down at the floor.

"Sorry," she muttered, a slight English accent to the Japanese she spoke, "it's just that, from all the news reports and sports reviews, I know a lot about you Mr. Tyson. With everyone praising you on your courage and loyalty, I always hear them say that the size of your heart is second only to your stomach, so to actually hear it complain like that when your frustration clearly shows you can't do anything about it…" Her voice trailed off and she giggled before looking up and smiling allowing her meadows to meet his storms.

Looking into her eyes made him shy for some reason, but before he moved to look away he heard a soft but firm 'no' escape her lips. Why would she say that? Did she want him to look? That thought caused him to look at her eyes a little harder; his face split into a green as he read her. She wasn't going to judge him, she wasn't laughing at him, she wasn't going to glomp him and she wasn't going to ask for his autograph, she wasn't going to get cocky and declare herself a better blader than he could ever be. None of that, and there was something else in her eye, so clear he could hear her say it in his head.

_'Don't worry about me and my giggles; I'm secretly insane.'_ Tyson grinned broadly, and then noticed that the girl was now standing and rummaging through her bag, she brought out something circular wrapped in grease-paper. Handing it to Tyson she smiled then left. He watched her vanish into the crowds before opening his 'gift' and squealed with delight as a burger found its way into his hands from its previous wrapping.

**Gliitch: **Told you it would be short

**Megsy: **I thought you hated Tyson

**Gliitch: **I do, but it will not be demonstrated at this time or via this character

**Megsy: **Why is that?

**Gliitch: **I can't say much about the girl, but I can say she is neither strong enough or scary enough for the job

**Megsy: **Makes sense.


	4. Life is Sweet

**Gliitch: **Gee, I really took my time didn't I? Hey Megsy! Aren't you supposed to make sure that this kind of slack _doesn't_ happen?

**Megsy: **That would make what difference? You were too busy planning your next three fics, and you haven't even really _started _this one!

**Gliitch: **What can I say? I just have too many ideas! And Tyson kinda took away my inspiration, so I couldn't write, not even for one of my favourite characters!

**Megsy: **Right….suppose you tell us what you _were_ working on?

**Gliitch: **Maybe…after the fic! (in which we actually get to see some bladin'…sort of)

**Help Like You**

Chapter 4: Life is Sweet

"Damn," Max looked around half-preying for yet half-terrified of the idea of someone wandering along; as much as he wanted someone to help him, he definitely did _not_ want _anyone_ to _ever_ see him in his current predicament. It had been three hours since he had climbed into that bloody tree to…well? Just to see if he could; he really should cut down on the sugar. As it turned out, Max could indeed climb _very_ well; so well in fact that he was now perched a good thirteen feet off the ground, wondering how to get down. For someone inexperienced in the art of jumping from trees, thirteen feet was quite enough, but Max's slightly diminutive size made the distance that much bigger and his sugar rush had worn out a little while ago.

He looked at his watch, four pm. He was supposed to get to Tyson's by six, maybe if he was late enough they would send out a search party for him? He could only hope; of course that _still_ meant he had just over two hours before anyone realised he was missing. He looked over the tops of the trees surrounding his own at the cloudy sky that would be covering the town that the branches shielded from his sight. Of all the trees he could have climbed, he had to find one in the centre of the woods, away from paths and people and all means of escape. Wait, _all _means of escape? Who was that he could her rustling through the trees? Max looked down into the clearing at the small girl who had emerged; and he meant small, even from his current position, the girl was at least a few inches shorter than _him_; though perhaps she was taller than Daichi.

He had to admit that he was surprised that he hadn't seen her coming; she wasn't exactly hard to miss. Her short and curly hair, though of a dark brown colour compensated by being drawn into a pair of low hanging bunches that were tied with bright orange ribbons. The same orange filled her sleeveless top that ended just over the waist-band of a knee-length pair of shorts of a bright yellow colour hung from her hips and her small yet slender legs ended in a pair of dull brown trainers outline with a light bluish-grey colour, very subtle especially in comparison to the rest of her clothes. Max now directed his gaze back up to her face only to find himself staring into a beautiful set of electric blue eyes.

"See something ya like?" the girl giggled up at him a huge grin on her childish face, a slight English accent attached to her Japanese, then her expression turned to one of concern, "what ya doin' up _there_ anyway? You stuck or somethin'?"

"No!" Max squeaked, but when the girl narrowed her eyes at him he cringed sheepishly, "well, maybe a little stuck. Don't suppose you could help a guy out?" The girl laughed loudly with pure glee before bending her knees only a little, but that 'little' was more than enough as she used it as momentum to spring at least fifteen feet before coming down and landing in a perfect crouch position on the branch in front of Max. Looking at the shocked look on Max's face she smirked and then stood up where she crouched, hands on hips not even wobbling.

"Well come on then! I don't _have_ all day!" The girl grinned holding out her hand, Max carefully took his hand from where it was holding onto the branch place it in hers; he yelped has he felt some force, supposedly from this stranger, pull him upwards and caused him to almost collide with the girl who had let her grip go as soon as she had pulled him up only to catch his shoulders before he could fall into her.

After Max had gained his balance, the girl decided to once again throw him off by pulling harshly on one shoulder forcing him to turn round at which point she grabbed both his shoulders and pulled him backwards into her where she wrapped her arms around his waist. It was here that Max realised he was blushing furiously. Before he had time to sort himself out, Max now felt himself turning and falling backwards, he prepared himself for the worst but it never came; what came was a sudden jolt and the feeling of blood rushing to his head. Max opened the eyes he had not realised were closed and looked at the upside-down world around him, he looked up (or down) at the branch where he had just been to see a pair of legs behind his own, (that were hanging aimlessly in the air,) wrapped around it. It was at this instant that Max noted that the girl was still tightly attached to his waist, or was she?

One arm hadn't moved from where the girl had placed it only seconds before but the other was now patting around his front as though looking for something, he could he her grumbling into the back of his shoulder, apparently she couldn't quite see what she was doing due to their height difference; eventually though, Max spoke up.

"Lost something?"

"Yea, your hands and arms," came the muffled reply; Max may have been confused but he obliged to the vaguely phrased request.

"Hanging above my head," he laughed then paused with thought, "or below my head?" A series of stifled giggles reached his ears, just as her hand reached his and grabbed on tightly.

"Do you get motion-sick?" This girl got more and more confusing by the second.

"No, why?"

He was answered with a tightened grip on his hand and a loosed one on his waist; he felt himself swing round in the air before coming to an abrupt halt, his feet inches from the floor. It was at this time that the hold the girl had on his wrist slackened considerably, allowing him to wriggle free and land comfortably on two legs when he got over the shock of the fast movement. Max looked up to the branch to see how the small girl would cope with getting _herself_ down; she wasn't there.

"Ya know, you're gonna have to move a _lot_ faster than that if we end up matching together Maxie-boy!" The voice sounded from behind him where the girl stood in the clearing, feet parted, chin up and hands on hips; Max hadn't known it was possible for someone so short to look so tall. He shook his head in disbelief when he realised what she had said, it was wrong on so many levels!

"Wha?"

"Well you _are the _Max Tate of the world-famous Bladebreakers _and_ just as infamous All-stars aren't you?" Max said nothing, just nodded dumbly, "and you _are_ here in Japan to join that famous former-mentioned team in the qualifiers for the up and coming tournament aren't you?" Nod, "So it _does_ stand to reason that at _some_ point or another our teams may _actually_ end up battling each other therefore increasing the possibility of _us_ having a match-up doesn't it?" Nod, stare, click, voice.

"Huh? What? You're a blader? With a blade?" Max stared at the girl, his cerulean eyes wide with a mix between shock and awe.

"Nah! I'm a delusional fangirl who stands at the edge if the stadium and launches a colourful spinning top in a desperate mimicry!" The sarcasm was so overdone, even for sarcasm; Max couldn't help himself as he nearly fell to the ground laughing and clutching his sides. Straightening up, his laugh died down to a wide grin.

"Well, I don't wanna keep ya!"

"Keep me?

"You said you didn't have all day."

"Oh _that_!" The girl laughed, "I lied." She shrugged, and then suddenly a look of realisation came on to her face; she fells to her hands and knees and started searching around the floor for something.

"My hands and arms are right here if that's what you happen to be looking for once again." Max laughed lightly innocently, but the girl seemed to have more pressing matters.

"I was training in the other clearing, where there's a little more room, but I lost a sweet, so I came to look for it. Aha!" The girl abruptly stood up, trapping what appeared to be a small green sweet between her thumb and index finger.

"A…sweet?" Max looked on dumbfounded, but before he could say anything he was being dragged in an unknown direction; the two soon emerged in a new clearing, and Max felt his face light up. It _was_ a little bigger than the one that had witnessed his little sugar-hype, and sunlight streamed down on a bey-dish that had been place in the middle. It was not this however, that caught Max's attention, bit more, the _contents_ of the dish; sweets, filled about half-way up with every colour he could think of were dozens of small candy-treats. Max shifted his gaze to the girl who was now attaching a pale minty-green blade what appeared to be a dark grass-green ribbon that had been wrapped many times around a thin wooden pole.

In her right hand she held the end opposite to the blade and lifted it high above her head leaning back on her right foot.

"Let...it…rip!" With each word she spoke, the girl crouched, leapt, then swung the pole forward toward the dish and the blade was released in a storm of silky ribbon. The blade flew obediently to the dish as its owner gracefully landed in the midst of a pirouette that sent the ribbon spiralling around her. Now, without warning, she called to her blade, "Benson! Flip!" Immediately to in its determination to obey the given command the blade tilted at a dangerous angle and flew at one of the sugary treats which got caught up in the spin, but as in the split second it came round to the other side of the blade, said object jerked throwing the sweet off and in the direction of the young girl who opened her mouth expectantly.

Max could only gape in amazement as the treat flew directly into the girl's mouth, it then proceeded to be chewed and swallowed by said girl. Holding out her hand the blade flew dutifully back to its master, but she didn't pocket it, or prepare to re-launch it; no, she turned clasped the blade in her left hand holding it in front of Max's face. He took in every detail. The attack-ring was at the top, but it was a strange shape and the blades that should have been used for attacking were angled oddly. The centre appeared to be all black, but not solid, it was like her blade was open-topped but the inside just didn't exist. From the edge of this 'hole' came a small green stalk, the same colour as the rest of the blade, which mutated into what appeared to be a lily-pad, suspended in the middle of her blade. The centre of this lily-pad contained a circle of a much darker green, the centre of _that_ gave way to a black silhouette of which could not be made out.

The girl flipped the blade a little so that it was now the right way up; her hand clasping the top so Max could see the small nib at the bottom which was what the blade would spin on was of the same green as the circle on the lily-pad, and it had been sharpened to a fine stabbing point.

"Max, meet Benson, my trusted blade. Benson this is my new friend Max!" Max blushed a little as the girl smiled sweetly at him before dragging him into a one-armed hug.

"Okay, so you know _my_ name, I'm assuming you know _Draciel_, and I now know _Benson_, but what I don't know is _your_ name!" Max laughed pulling away from the girl.

"Me? Why _I'm_ Frieda!" The girl exclaimed with delight.

"Ok then Frieda! At least I have something to call you now!" Max was about to join her in her fits of giggles when he felt a sharp pain in his head as Frieda whacked him round the back of it, "hey! What gives!?"

"You don't spell it like that!" Max just stared at her dumbfounded, "I can see how you were spelling it in your head! It's not spelt like that!" She actually looked a little angry.

"There are lots of ways to spell your name! How do you know which one _I_ used!?"

"Alright then! Spell it!" She snapped.

"F-R-" Max began.

"Wrong!" 'Frieda' interrupted, Max responded with a raised eyebrow and daring smile.

"Oh yeah? So how _is_ it spelt?" 'Frieda' smirked in retort to the challenge.

"K-F-R-I-E-D-A" she announced proudly, "Kfrieda! Silent 'k' at the beginning don't ya know!" Max looked at her uncertainly.

"Ummm….that's…different," he trailed off, leaving Kfrieda to fill in the gaps.

"There was once a game of truth and dare," she started in a sort of sing-song voice, "I asked for truth because my friend is always so shy, she would have been too frightened to dare _anyone_ let alone _me_! So I chose truth but she still seemed pretty shy about it, eventually she asked me that if I had to spell my name in the strangest most unpredictable way I could think of, what would it be? Well…it kinda stuck!"

Kfrieda giggled joyfully before looking quite shocked. She grabbed Max's watch hand and pulled it up to her eye-view.

"Hey! Don't you have somewhere to be!?" she squeaked pointing to the watch. Max looked in horror, had an hour gone by already? Thanking Frieda once again Max dashed off through the trees to make his way back across the park and to his friend's home; he almost knocked down some poor girl in a yellow jumper had she not speedily dodged him. He yelled back a sorry and continued speeding on his way.

**Gliitch: **Woo! Yay for random spellings!

**Megsy: **Mhmm, and about those other fics?

**Gliitch: **Yea I decided that I'm only post up the next fic which I'm about to write

**Megsy: **That being?

**Gliitch: **I also decided not to post it until I have the inescapable need to start writing it

**Megsy: **I see

**Gliitch: **By the way readers! What did you think of Kfrieda's blade?


	5. Curiousity Killed the 'What' Now?

**Megsy: **Whether it's because Gliitch is unbelievably bored, or has no life and therefore nothing better to do, she has decided all by herself to put up the next chapter really, really soon; as in now

**Gliitch: **Did it ever occur to you that it might just be because I'm really sweet and kind?

**Megsy: **No. _Is _that the reason?

**Gliitch: **No, but it isn't either of the two reasons you said either which I might point out are practically the same

**Megsy: **Oh yeah, so what _is _the reason?

**Gliitch: **I decided to update to make up for the really long gap, and ya know what else?

**Megsy: **What?

**Gliitch: **We actually get some where with this chapter! See for yourself…

**Help Like You**

Chapter5: Curiosity Killed the 'What' Now?

Rei stood up from the bench he had been relaxing on as he overheard someone's conversation and just so happened to catch that it was about five thirty; that should be just about enough time to get to Tyson's. As he walked down the street he heard what sounded like yelling coming from an alley across the road. He didn't like to pry, but his curiosity got the better of him and he went to take a look. The alley was quite dark due to the early setting sun, but Rei's amber eyes could easily depict the scene before him. He saw that the narrow alley ended in a chain-link high fence; on the other side of which were about four or five tall males, seemingly in their late teens or early twenties, and they had positioned themselves to block off the only escape route of a young boy, who appeared to be in a school uniform; but Rei didn't recognise it. From behind, Rei could just about make out a pair of black trousers, a blue blazer and a white shirt protruding from the top of the collar.

As the thugs advanced on the boy again, Rei dove into action; he ran down the alley and sprang over the fence, using his time in the air to aim a kick at the thug nearest the boy. His target stumbled back and fell into the wall as two of the others stared in shock before making their escape. The injured attacker soon followed once he had regained his balance. This at least evened the numbers out a _little_, but that didn't change the fact that two of the five still remained. Rei took a quick glance back at the boy, who stared back with huge chocolate brown eyes, one trembling hand on his black tie, the other clasping the handle of a black case. His dark brown hair was ruffled greatly and he was clearly ready to collapse right then and there.

Rei looked back at his opponents just in time to see the larger one lunge at him, he made a swift dodge but cursed himself for it when he realised that the boy who had been standing directly behind him was now in the aggressor's line of fire. It proved not to be an issue however; the disappearance of the assailant's target threw off his focus and consequently his balance just enough so that even though he continued forward, it took only one hard whack from the boy's case to send him to the floor, unconscious. The remaining enemy moved fast to take out Rei while the neko-jin was preoccupied with staring at the small boy who suddenly looked very sturdy.

"Hey! Watch out!" The boy yelled, but too late; Rei was grabbed by the throat and shoved back into the wall, he hissed in pain, baring his fangs as his head crashed against the bricks. He struggled but to no avail; slowly, Rei could feel the air escape him as he clawed helplessly at the hand on his throat, it didn't help that his focus was thrown off by the sickening dizziness caused by the blow to his head. Out of the corner of his blurring vision, Rei watched as the boy seemed to freeze at what he was seeing, but it didn't take half a second for that to vanish as the boy reached his resolve. Gripping tightly onto his case he ran at the brute currently pinning Rei to the wall and moved to swing, but Rei's eyes had already left the boy attempting to save him and moved to the knife that his captor had pulled out using his free hand; the knife that the other boy hadn't seen.

As the remaining foe made to swipe at his latest opponent, Rei suddenly kicked into overdrive and lifted a leg to deal a hard blow to his adversary's chest. The knife fell to the floor quickly followed by Rei, neither stayed there for long; the boy had regained his composure quickly after his target moved, (unlike the large unconscious lump from before,) and was now standing defensively in front of Rei case in hand, ready to fight as the criminal slowly detangled himself from the previously mentioned lump who had awakened only to be bowled over by his affiliate, this time he managed to remain conscious. When Rei saw the two attackers stand, albeit with great effort, Rei made a grab for the knife and stood slowly, leaning back against the wall slightly; even though it was clear Rei was having difficulty, the fact that he was now armed when he had been enough trouble before, and the fact that the boy could deal quite a blow when he wanted was enough to make the remaining two of the gang stagger off, leaving Rei and the boy in the alley.

As soon as Rei felt it was safe, he dropped the knife and slumped fully against the wall before sliding to the floor. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, using this structure as a pillow, he bowed his head forwards, his face out of sight; now that the adrenalin was leaving him, he could feel the pain more than ever, and he was still having a little trouble breathing. Willing the pain to leave was working, but at least, if he kept his head down, he would be able to see the spinning world that grew ever foggier.

"Hey are you alright?" He looked up and could just about make out the figure of the boy standing over him; he didn't want this boy to worry and he wanted to reassure him, but he felt sure that if he tried to talk, his voice would betray him. If couldn't breathe, he definitely couldn't talk, so he tried another tact.

Rei forced his head to focus for a minute, (which hurt like hell but he ignored it) and stood up, still leaning slightly against the wall, but not enough to rouse suspicion. At this moment, he stared directly into the boy's eyes and gave him a big Cheshire cat grin along with double thumbs up, careful not to let a single noise escape his throat. He was playing mute. The boy looked unsure for a moment but before he could say anything Rei started 'speaking' again. He put is thumbs down and point at the boy who nodded and smiled in understanding.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit shaken. They must have assumed I have money because of my uniform." Rei didn't understand what was so special about the uniform he didn't recognise, but he nodded and smiled anyway. He just wanted this person to leave so he could check himself for serious injuries before he passed out.

The boy seemed satisfied and after saying his 'thanks' and 'farewells' he walked off down the alley muttering something about coffee and what sounded like 'damn rich bastards.' Rei sighed and sunk back to the floor almost immediately, hissing as he realised the cold air seemed to affect one spot on the back of his head in particular; the spot with the pain. It was a coldness similar to that of just stepping out the bath or shower; enhanced by the presence of a warm substance…Rei placed his hand to the back of his head and felt a hot liquid, returning the hand to where he could just about see through the fuzziness that was his vision he allowed a string of foreign (mostly Chinese) profanities to run through his head, but nothing travelled through his throat; he willed himself not to say anything for fear of increasing the pain.

Eventually, Rei decided that sitting in a dark alleyway, in this state, at this time of night, probably wasn't the best idea; so he willed himself to get to his feet. He certainly couldn't vault back over the fence, but he didn't know his way around this side of the buildings, so really he was just wondering aimlessly until he walked into some sort of luck; hopefully it would be _good_ luck. Through the haze, he vaguely took into account that there were no longer any buildings around him. After hearing the flow of rushing water, and the sound of his own feet tapping against something wooden, Rei's heart leapt with joy, his was at the bridge in the park; he had apparently entered from the other side without noticing, but this flood of relief was probably the worst thing that could have happened.

Without warning, his energy left him; the thought of being so close had made him feel safe, and the panic that had driven him was taken away. He endeavoured to keep going, but without success he collapsed to his hands and knees just a few metres past the bridge. He struggled endlessly to get up but his body wouldn't move; _couldn't_ move. Just as he was ready to give up, Rei heard footsteps approach him from behind. His already pained head started screaming at him to run; the gang, they had followed him! A new found panic washed over Rei as he successfully slid his feet back underneath him and kicked off from the floor in a blind attempt to get a jump-start away from them, but the movement made him dizzy and as his feet left the ground, he was already falling back to it head-first.

Rei tried to prepare himself for more pain to be added to his torture, but none came. He felt something wrap around his waist and suddenly, yet softly, pull him back. Rei soon found himself leaning forwards unable to support his weight, but he didn't fall; there was still a pressure round his waist area that was successfully preventing that. He felt himself be turned to his left where as half the pressure round his waist was removed and followed by a smaller pressure held on his chest, it was still very soft but it was enough to make him lean backwards where he felt a another pressure come into contact with his upper back and even curl around his right shoulder slightly.

Now the pressure on his chest removed itself and at this point, Rei realised that the other half of the pressure around his waist had moved long ago. He didn't have time to dwell on this as the pressure around his right shoulder tightened, though it was still soft. Yes, soft; the feather-touches that were being used to handle him were the only thing that kept him from struggling. Rei unexpectedly felt himself being bent forward, but swiftly, something was hooked _softly _behind the backs of his knees and he was returned to his original position…well, sort of; his feet weren't touching the floor anymore and he felt strangely horizontal.

When Rei realised that he was in fact being carried somewhere, the soft touches were suddenly not enough to calm him anymore; weak and tired as he was, he struggled with all his might succeeding only in making this person hold tighter, perhaps not softly anymore, but it still wasn't violent. This hold that Rei was locked in; it was almost desperate; as if the life of his carrier depended on not letting go of him. The hold was tight yet protective, strong yet tender, and as Rei's aching head started to take notice of this, he struggled less. True he didn't stop altogether but he certainly wasn't putting up _half_ the struggle he had been before.

As Rei lessened his struggle, his ears managed to tune into someone speaking; this voice, it spoke to him in Chinese but it was clearly British. More to the point, it most certainly wasn't one of the thugs as he had first thought, the biggest clue being that it was female. Although he could not completely comprehend what the girl was saying, her voice calmed him down immensely and he at last stop struggling altogether. He moved his eyes up to glance closely at her face, but his vision was still hazy. Even so, he could define at least two features.

Behind her head shone one of the many lamps that lined the park, so her face was darkened, but it was because of the darkness that he could, even through the haze, determine two bright silver eyes gazing back at him. She was still speaking. The other feature he could make out was the silhouette of two fuzzy triangular things on top of her head, it could have been shaped buns but somehow it seemed unlikely. The confusion made Rei's head hurt even more, so he just closed his eyes, and as he did, he felt his head roll to the side and come into contact with the girl's warm shoulder; she didn't seem to mind, in fact, she shifted her arm so that he was now leaning against her upper arm instead of lower, and bent her elbow so her hand could reach up and stroke his hair gently.

As the girl walked in a flowing liquid motion so as not to make it uncomfortable, she kept talking and stroking Rei's hair; calming him down and when a cold wind started to lash at them she even encouraged him to bury himself further into her shoulder for protection and warmth; he nuzzled into the crook of her neck so far that when his forehead came into contact with the area below her chin, he could feel her pulse. It thumped away gently, in time to the throbbing in his head until the two eventually melded together and the pain became somewhat surreal. Now he let her voice wash over him, he wanted to thank her but he still couldn't speak; his throat still ached, (though he had at least had access to a lot more air since he started calming down) so gave a weak sort of smile but was still unsatisfied as he at least wanted to eye-contact to help the girl understand but even so his eyes refused to open.

That wasn't necessary though, as Rei felt a quick increase in the tightness of her hold before it returned to normal; a little hug, just to let him know she understood, and then all the pain vanished into the dark as he fell into unconsciousness.

**Gliitch: **A quick note to all Rei fans: SPARE MY LIFE I LOVE REI TOO!

**Megsy: **You have a funny way of showing it.

**Gliitch: **It saddens me to say that Rei will be open to a lot of violence, but it shouldn't be anything even worth a band aid for the most part!

**Megsy: **Well let's hope not. Now, I have a strange sense of déjà vu about that boy who got him into this mess…

**Gliitch: **Well I should think so. This boy is not a main character, isn't even _my_ character, hell, isn't even an OC; he is from another anime and is a big clue as to where I'm putting my next fanfic.

**Megsy: **So who is he?

**Gliitch: **Not saying, let's see how many people can guess it right, if you do I'll send you a message.

**Megsy: **Could you at least give us a clue?

**Gliitch: **Okay. '_He_' is _actually_ a '_she_.' There, that's all you're gettin'.


	6. In Your Dreams

**Gliitch:**Guess whose back!

**Megsy: **Oh joy

**Gliitch: **Well for once I don't have much to say; so let's just cut straight to the story!

(Insert Megsy's horrified gasp)

It is implied that I am punching you

**Help Like You**

Chapter 6: In Your Dreams

Rei blinked and looked around; there was nothing here, just blackness. He looked down at himself and was surprised that the darkness seemed to be ineffectual towards him; as if his body were a different layer to the background altogether. The darkness surrounding Rei made him feel quite lonely and cold; as if on cue he shivered violently so he hugged himself tightly and crouched down dipping his head to rest on his knees. Rei did not remain here for long though, as after a few seconds the sound of soft purring reached his ever-sharp ears. He looked up to find himself face to face with a white tiger whose green stripes decorated his fur and whose gold armour added to his almost royal look. He was currently roughly the size of a normal tiger; though definitely larger than most.

"Drigger?" Rei asked uncertainly, the mighty cat said nothing but instead butted his head against Rei's playfully. Rei laughed and stood up scratching his bit beast behind his left ear; said bit beast purred heavily, "what the hell _is_ this place?" Rei looked around and still saw nothing, but he didn't feel lonely anymore; warmth had spread through his entire being upon seeing Drigger was here beside him, just like he always was.

"_This place_ is result of me screwing with your head so I could have a little chat with you," a harsh voice sounded from behind him making Rei spin around. Before him stood a young boy, who looked; no not _his_ age, probably closer to Kai's age. The boy had short messy ruby red hair that spiked off in all directions, and from under equally messy bangs Rei could also make out a huge pair of hazel eyes, "The name's Apricot, how's your head?" Rei opened his mouth to say he was fine but he was cut short.

"Never mind, you're asleep you can't feel anything; why the hell did I bother asking? It's not like I would've cared if you _could_ feel anything, force of habit maybe?" It was hard to tell if the boy named Apricot was talking to Rei or just to himself so he just kept quiet and listened, "or maybe it has something to do with lace?" Here, he stopped talking. This was convenient as Rei's curiosity had just got the better of him (you would think he would've learnt by now).

"What do you mean by lace?"

"Not _what_," Apricot had a hint of annoyance in his voice and his eyes flashed as if angered, "_who_; the one you were fortunate enough to be found by; her _name_ is _Lace_!"

"Oh! That's an unusual name…" Rei mused out loud, but when Apricot glared at him he quickly defended himself, "I didn't _mean_ anything by that! I think it really is quite a nice name it's just that the word never _occurred_ to me as a _name_ before!" The boy dropped his glare and smiled a little, looking dreamily into the blackness above him as if recalling a happy memory.

"Yeah, that's why I named her that; because it's different to how it should be normally, the simple change of how you use the word has made it sound so beautiful," Apricot then smiled directly at Rei, a peaceful look on his face; he smiled even more at Rei's confused expression and continued, "just like her…she never acted the way you would expect, there was never anything you could predict about her even though she was so easy to read; but that just made her even more amazing." Rei's eyes widened a little in awe, this boy had clearly put a lot of thought into Lace's name, he couldn't be sure as to why he was naming her in the first place but he suspected that Apricot was probably some loving older bother who had been given the privilege of naming his sibling.

Suddenly, Apricot's smile vanished and it was replaced with a stern glare aimed directly at Rei.

"Now _Rei_," he said Rei's name with such mockery that it made the neko-jin wince slightly, "as I've heard that you are _supposedly_ quite intelligent I am _sure_ that you have already perceived just how important Lace _is_ to me…" he paused to watch the other growl at the patronising tone in his voice then continued, "…and since _you pathetically_ collapsed in her arms she has gone through an _awful lot_ of trouble to look _after_ you, so _when_ you wake up, be a _good_ little kitten and make sure that she stays happy, content, out of trouble; _and for heaven's_ _sake try _not to upset her by blurting out the fact that you have a crush on her should you _happen_ to develop one; being _attracted_ to her is fine; you can tell her that. You _cannot_ _by any means_ inform her you have a _crush_ however which leads me to my next rule for you…"

Rei raised an eyebrow at the red head and was about to ask what the hell he was talking about when he was suddenly cut off again.

"…you are _not_, under _any_ circumstance to _develop _a _crush_ on _Lace_!" Apricot still wore a stern look on his face but it was now joined with one of expectancy.

"Is there anything else?" Rei questioned his voice somewhere between amusement and annoyance, he disliked the way Apricot mocked him, but the way he talked about Lace; it was _hilarious_! Apricot spoke as if Rei _actually_ had a _choice_ about who he so happened to crush on; after all it wasn't something one _decided_, it just sort of…happened. Besides, he hadn't even really _met_ the girl…heck! He'd never _really_ even _seen_ her! Not _clearly_!

"Yeah there _is one _more thing…" Apricot smirked; allowing what appeared to be fangs similar to Rei's own escape his top lip. Rei frowned upon seeing this and drifted his gaze to the hazel eyes he had previously neglected to pay much attention to, were indeed centred with triangular slits in the form of pupils. 'N-n-neko-jin?' Rei asked himself in his head, "When you wake up could you do me the kind favour of putting her in a more comfortable place? You'll understand when you see for yourself." With that, the boy named Apricot faded into the darkness. Rei looked down at Drigger with a wide-eyed expression; the tiger gazed back at him intently. Rei blinked, and Drigger was gone, he then realised he could no longer see his hands like before, then it occurred to him; he hadn't blinked, just closed his eyes; they were still closed right now, so he opened them only to see white.

As Rei's eyes focused he found he was staring at the ceiling in Tyson's bedroom. He sat up to look around and almost immediately wished he hadn't as a dizzy feeling overcame him and a dull throb returned to its 'rightful place' at the back of his head. Rei hissed slightly in pain and swallowed a growl; this also turned out to be a mistake as his throat seemed to be numbingly small. Looking to the bedside table Rei found a glass of water which he gladly took and downed, the cool liquid helped immensely on the inside but in the outside it still felt like there was something wrapped around his throat. This was when Rei's memory of the previous night returned.

The feeling around his neck was natural looking back at it; the grip had been fairly tight and Rei was probably badly bruised, he could expect this dead feeling to last a few days. Rei made to get out of bed but found that the area of duvet near his feet was too tight, he gasped at what met his investigative gaze. She sat on the red slipper-like shoes (similar to his black ones) that adorned her feet as she knelt on the floor in a pair of chocolate brown trousers. She wore a red top that reach halfway down her thigh and hugged her features tightly, across her chest and arms was a light brown stripe; the colour of a pine-like wood. The collar was away from her neck and started about halfway across each shoulder. Rei _assumed_ that the sleeves went all the way to her hands but he could see much of her lower arms due to long golden wavy strands of hair covering them due to her head resting on (apparently) folded arms.

It was her hair that caught his attention; or rather, what he could see protruding from it. The girl slept quietly, her breathing deep and slow; each breath lifted her up and down; each breath sent a large pair of big black fluffy ears back and forth.

**Gliitch:** Now _that's_ what I call a neko-jin! The way I see this in my head…all I wanna do is scratch behind her ears!

(Megsy is nowhere in sight)

She went to bed; she figured that I clearly had plenty of motivation to write if I was writing at gone midnight


	7. The More You Desire

**Gliitch: **Woo! Next chapter! I am on fire! They just keep rollin' in! See what happens when we remove Tyson?

**Megsy: **I liked Tyson…

**Gliitch:** You hate Tyson; you can only stand not to threaten to kill him because of how much he pisses me off

**Megsy:** True, please return the Tyson-ness

**Gliitch:** _Unfortunately_, Tyson will be making regular appearances in the story from this point on; _fortunately_, so will Lace…and Kai

**Megsy:** Lace? The one that saved Rei?

**Gliitch:** Yea…so?

**Megsy:** She seems a little too sweet for that kind of thing…

**Gliitch:** You haven't even really met her yet, she's a good guy, and she isn't just gonna leave him there to die! Bah! You'll see!

**Help Like You**

Chapter 7: The More You Desire…

Kai leaned back against the wall and looked around the room where everyone had _finally_ fallen asleep; though for most of the night they were up worrying about Rei even though they had been _assured_ he was fine and just needed some sleep. He thought back to the previous evening when Max had coming running up to the dojo as if the hounds of hell were mere inches behind him; not that it mattered to anyone but Kai but he had been a whole _three minutes_ _late_. It was after about half an hour when the team had started to worry that Rei hadn't turned up.

_FLASHBACK_

_"Well I just got off the phone with Lee, Rei didn't have any trouble wit the flight and he called when he landed, so he is _definitely_ somewhere in Japan." Tyson stated upon walking back into the room, everyone else exchanged glances save from me; I, despite the situation, had to have a go at Tyson (I was still a little pissed off about the girl I ran into and had spent the whole trying to figure out if it had actually happened; I needed someone to take it out on)._

_"Oh good, you take north Japan I'll take south; geez it would be _better _if Rei _were_ still in China, at least_ then _we would know where he_ is_!" He frowned at me but it wasn't as if I actually cared; he could just run an extra hundred lap's tomorrow morning…though maybe, looking back, what I said _wasn't _the best thing; after looking round the room I proved that to myself. Hillary sat at the kitchen table, her hands clasped under chin looking nervously from me to Tyson; clearly thinking somewhere between 'please don't scare me Kai' and 'Tyson do something,' pfft, as if Tyson could do _anything_! Opposite Hillary sat Max, kneeling backwards on his chair so that he was clinging onto the back staring intently at Tyson as if waiting for more news. _Next_ to Hillary sat Kenny, who for once didn't look that worried; in fact he was calmly typing away at Dizzi and Rei's absence didn't seem to be bothering him at all. I think he saw me watching him…_

_"Rei's capable, he's only half an hour late; if he hasn't at least called by seven thirty we can panic then, but he's probably just fallen asleep or something. He'll get here." Yeah, fallen asleep; it was scary just how right he turned out to be. Of course, he wasn't sleeping at this time; no from what _we _know he went to sleep around the same time we agreed to start panicking. At least I assume we agreed; Hillary smiled at him with relief that _someone_ wasn't worried, Max turned and nodded where as _Tyson_ stopped glaring at the phone and set it on the kitchen table. I may or may not have grunted in acknowledgement, I don't quite recall…_

_7:30_

_It was about now that I was starting to worry a little myself, but I didn't show it by running round like a headless chicken phoning and asking people; I showed it by ordering everyone else to do that. Tyson had called Mr Dickenson already and it seemed that there hadn't been any trouble travelling _after_ the airport and he had dropped Rei off in town at about four in the afternoon. Something definitely wasn't right, and even Kenny had lost his faith in Rei's ability to 'take care of himself.' Suddenly there was a loud beep sounding from his laptop and Dizzi's voice sounded above everyone's worried discussion about what to do._

_"Hey Chief! You remember miss tall, bright and beautiful? Well she sent you a cam-invite!" There was something about the way she said it; it was more urgent than mocking._

_"Not _now_ Dizzi!"_

_"_Yes now! _You don't understand, there's a message attached to the invite, I _really_ think you wanna accept!" I watched as Kenny growled a little before walking back to his beloved laptop; I then watched as his mouth fell open, is reaction intrigued me so I crept over to take a look at the message._

'Chief! Isn't that Kon guy on your team a neko-jin?'

_Kenny was still staring blankly at the screen so I took charge._

_"Dizzi, accept the invite already!" Of its own accord the link turned from blue to purple and a box appeared in the top left hand corner of the screen, it showed a young girl with brown hair and glasses looking quite concerned; her appearance _did_ however seem to snap Kenny out of his daze as he started questioning her._

_"John! What's wrong?! What about Rei!?"_

_"Kenny calm down, my friend just phoned. She said she found a boy, who had been injured a bit, and that he seemed to be a neko-jin; that word, I just thought of Rei immediately, I suppose your concern means he hasn't turned up?"_

_"No, he's not here! That sounds like too much of a coincidence not to be him! Is he okay?!" Kenny questioned the girl frantically whilst everyone else just listened in fear of the worst, I myself was a little tense but I stayed focused and listened carefully to every detail._

_"Apparently he was terrified when she first tried to help him; and when Lace finally got him calm he fell unconscious but she said he seemed to be alright. She told me that he had a nasty wound to the back of his head but it probably wouldn't be all that bad once it was cleaned and some bruising round the neck but nothing hospital-requiring, probably just a small concussion."_

_"Where do you guys live? Where is he?" Tyson jumped into the conversation now, leaning over the shoulder of Kenny opposite to the one I was leaning over on the right._

_"Actually she found him in the park about fifteen minutes from your dojo, I told her to take him straight there; I kinda assumed you guys would all be there so she'll be right over!"_

_"Thanks John, we'll wait here for them," I don't know exactly _who_ he was including in that 'we' but it certainly wasn't me, I marched towards the kitchen door and was already down the hall and out the front before I heard Kenny yell after me, "Kai!? Where are you going!?" 'Where the _hell_ do you _think_ I'm going Kenny!?' I thought to myself; honestly, where else would I go? As I walked through the dojo's archway I broke into a run and started making my way back to the park I had been in only this morning._

_When the gate was insight, I was just in time to see a girl jump over the fence with ease whilst carrying something in her arms…_

_"Rei!" I don't know why I yelled out: relief maybe? Or maybe I was hoping he would wake up and wave at me…he didn't. I ran over to them and the girl looked up at me; I think my eyes removed themselves from my skull when I saw her. Her ears were not at the _side _of her head where they should be, nor were they pink and round; her ears were instead situated on the top of her head, black fluffy triangular ears. Cat's ears. I looked down at her face, her eyes were a silver colour and shone though the moon was clouded over, if I looked closely I could see tears forming round the edges; well anyone would be upset, this sort of thing does rather take one by surprise. It's not that I was going soft, I just didn't see the point of this girl bawling her eyes out so I relaxed my expression into a small (and I _mean _small) smile in gratitude and bent down a little to carefully scoop my team mate into my own arms. The girl obliged but still looked worriedly after Rei as I turned to walk away, so I looked at her and nodded my head in the direction of the dojo asking her to come with me._

_The door was still open when we returned but everyone had migrated to the living room; I spared them all a quick glance out of the corner of my eye before continuing my path up to Tyson's bedroom where I laid Rei gently on the bed and pulled the duvet over him. I turned and was startled to find that the girl had followed me all the way and she was still staring at Rei with wide eyes; I hadn't heard her behind me, but nevertheless I decided to put her mind at ease._

_"It's Lace, right?" I asked, having remembered the name pop into the conversation between Kenny and…he had called her John, but I refuse to use that name whilst speaking about her; it's just not right. Lace nodded in answer to my query and I continued, "Well that girl had said that from what you described there isn't anything to worry about, so you don't need to be so upset." Lace looked up at me and smiled, it wasn't really a happy smile, more of a 'thank you for trying smile but it's totally hopeless,' it then occurred to me that it wasn't necessarily Rei's injuries that were bother her. As she clearly wanted to keep her thoughts to herself I just let it be before leaving, "you can stay here if you like, I'm sure Mr Granger wont mind; but I think it's too late for you to go home now. I'm going to go find the first aid kit for his head." She smiled at me before walking round to the other side of the bed and sitting at the foot._

_When I went downstairs I was bombarded with a tonne of questions, I answered all of which with the simple line "Rei is fine, I'm just getting supplies to clean him up after which I will be returning downstairs and we are all going to stay here until further notice because Rei needs to rest; the girl who shall henceforth be known as Lace is the _only_ one allowed to stay up there which reminds me, 'Kenny's friend…'_

_"Yes, I will inform the others that she will be staying with you this evening; she will probably make her own way home tomorrow." The girl on the screen interpreted my question._

_"No, you can come by with 'the others' tomorrow morning; I believe we also owe you some gratitude." Before I could hear her reply I made my way to the kitchen, grabbed the first aid kit then hurried back upstairs. When Lace saw me come in and shut the door she gently pulled Rei into a sitting position and steadied him there while he slept, I thanked her and removed his head band before cleaning his wound and wrapping a bandage round it, it actually looked like a white head band itself when I had finished._

_When I was done she laid him back down and smiled at me again._

_"Thanks." She said an English accent to her Japanese words. Yes English, I noted that the girl on the screen also sounded English, if they had come from England, was the girl from this morning with them? Or was I _really_ hallucinating? It was then that I realised that after she had realised I was talking to her, she had gone from English to Russian without so much as thinking, I hadn't noticed since both were pretty much natural to me, actually most languages were natural to me. I suddenly felt very proud of myself that I had already invited Lace's friends over. Shaking myself from the line of thought that was my now questionable sanity, I realised that these had been her first words since arriving; she sounded rather hoarse and tired, I gave her a nod and went back down to the kitchen where I got a glass of water._

_As I was about to leave, a second thought hit me and I turned back to get another. The bruising around Rei's neck was sure to have crushed his throat a little; water would help when he woke. When I returned upstairs, Lace was sitting on the floor next to where she had been on the bed, craning her neck only slightly to look at Rei. She looked up at me as I walked round and gave her the glass of water before I walked back round and put the second glass on the bedside table. After that I left with out saying a word or waiting for her to thank me; I just went down the stairs and into the living room where I stood by the window with everyone watching me expectantly._

"_Just go to sleep, I'll wake you up when Rei wakes up." Eventually they all fell into light conversation before falling asleep._

_FLASHBACK ENDED_

Kai I looked around the room at where everyone had fallen asleep. Hillary was sleeping against Tyson on the sofa and he had his arm around her; the remainder of a comforting hug when she had been upset before, it was nice that they _could_ actually have interactions with each other that didn't involve killing the other. Max was curled up at the other end of the sofa, using the folded arms he had placed on the arm of the sofa as a pillow. Kenny had fallen asleep against the wall at the far end of the room with Dizzi on his lap, he had heard her fan slow down a few hours ago which meant she was in hibernation mode due to lack of activity.

Kai closed his eyes to enjoy the silence he had been so desperately deprived of that day. After the incident in the park he had taken to wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out if he had been hallucinating or whether she was just screwing with his head; it wasn't just her last comment, but from the start her arguments and defences had been somewhat out of the ordinary. Then again most arguments seemed out of the ordinary to Kai, since no one had ever been able to argue with him properly with a good winning point, and she had _actually won_; he could probably win an argument against himself…what made more sense, someone winning an argument with him or him hallucinating? Never mind, he would wait for Lace's friends to show; then he would decide.

Kai had run into Kenny there a little while after lunch, and the boy had said something about going to Tyson's early and that if Kai came he would use the time to check their blades. Of course, needless to say, he didn't get a moments peace after that.

A sound like someone stumbling about in a much cluttered place after having just woken up sounded overhead and Kai's eyes snapped open. 'And so the silence is killed once again,' he thought to himself as he dashed upstairs to see what Lace was doing, 'I swear, the more you desire something the less likely it is that you're going to get it.' When he opened the door, he saw not Lace standing up but Rei; Lace was asleep and cradled in his arms. He smiled at Kai by way of 'good morning' before gently lying Lace on the bed and pulling the covers over her which she gladly snuggled into.

"Sorry Kai, did I wake you?" Rei said as he picked up an empty glass in each hand and walked over.

"No I was already awake; you just startled me is all."

"Oh! Sorry! Tyson should really tidy this place." Rei laughed as the two went downstairs to put the glasses in the kitchen before hurrying back up.

"Her name's Lace by the way; the girl." Kai frowned when Rei snapped his head to look at him in pure shock and confusion, "what?" Rei realised I had spoken and shook his head before allowing his smile to return.

"Nothing, it's just an unusual name." Kai raised an eyebrow but said nothing; that hadn't been the look one gives when surprised by a name, so he just moved onto a different subject.

"How you feeling anyway?"

"Groggy, but not bad, even my head's only throbbing a bit."

"Did you wanna take the day off training?" Kai giving someone a day off of his own free will? It's the first sign of the apocalypse.

"Nah I'll be fine, if it gets too much I'll just stop." Someone _refusing_ that day off despite being injured? It's the second sign of the apocalypse.

"Okay, if you're sure. What happened last night anyway?"

"Oh same old same old; group of thugs, defenceless kid, dark alley; the usual." Kai smirked as he lent back against the wall next to Rei and they both watched the young girl on the bed.

Kai smiled when Rei made not effort at conversation; this is why he preferred the neko-jin to the rest of the team. Kai closed his eyes and enjoyed the silence, for the few seconds that their was not yelling and screaming downstairs…he growled, sighed and hurried down; hearing Rei follow unsteadily behind him.

**Gliitch:** See! See! I _told _you it was alright!

**Megsy:** Yeah, yeah, just settle down and actually do the things you're _supposed_ to be doing. You know, like coursework.

(Gliitch shakes her head and starts wrestling Megsy for the ten pence piece they have been fighting over for the past year)


	8. I Don't Speak Idiot

**Gliitch:** Woo! Someone likes my story! This entire chapter is dedicated to _that_ person and the one who added me to alert! You guys make my world go round!

**Megsy: **So how about you reward them by _actually_ getting on with the chapter?

**Gliitch:** Sure thing!

**Help Like You**

Chapter 8: I Don't Speak Idiot

In the living, Kai entered to find (surprise, surprise) Hillary snapping at Tyson; apparently she had been less than happy to find herself in Tyson's arms upon waking and she had started screaming at him. Of course, just plain waking up didn't go down well with Tyson at the best of times, so to wake to a screaming banshee when he had had to deal with all the news about Rei last night was most certainly pissing him off; not to mention he had only been hugging her in comfort.

"I fell _asleep_! I didn't know I was gonna I just did!" Tyson defended, as much as Kai hated to admit it; the victory of this argument should really be his, it really hadn't been his fault and if anything Hillary should have been thanking him for being there for her. Tyson on the other hand; knew that Hillary would win though, she always did; he could never hold out for long against her, anyone else he could stand against without any problem, some were even more ruthless than Hillary.

"Why were you even _holding _me in the _first _place?!" Hillary shrieked.

"You were _upset_! I was _trying_ to make you _feel_ better!"

"Well if I was _asleep_ then _clearly_ I had calmed down, so why not let go?!"

"In case I _woke you up_; it would be _pointless_ if you woke up and started worrying again!" The pair was glaring murderously at each other, and the squint in Hillary's eye meant she knew Tyson was right, but she was still going to win; he knew. Hillary knew just how to back him into a corner.

"And since _when_ did _you_ care so much?!" With that phrase, the argument ended; as Tyson knew it would. Tyson would never be able to answer to that; Hillary was good friends with everyone else, if it weren't for that he knew perfectly well that she would never even look his way; so he couldn't very well say, 'because we're friends.' Tyson had always tried to help and comfort people when they needed it no matter who they were; he knew this but he wouldn't use it as an argument, Hillary knew it too which is probably why she said it; just to hurt Tyson, to make him so unbelievably mad inside. Yes, always inside; for some reason, it would kill him every time she said that and he wouldn't have the will to argue anymore, he'd just put on a huffy act and try and pretend he was just in a mood about not winning the argument. In reality she had crushed him, but she never knew that; she only knew that those words were a guaranteed win to an argument.

Tyson gave a loud huff and flopped back onto the sofa, glaring at the wall whilst Hillary gave a satisfied smirk. Tyson's attention wasn't on the wall for long though, out of the corner of his eye he saw a tall figure standing in the doorway and he now looked up to see Kai, looking a little fed up but not as murderous as usual. He reason became quite apparent when Rei shuffled out from behind him and gave a shy wave to his friends. The yelling and screaming had woken everyone up and now Max looked like Christmas had come early as he ran over to Rei and jumped up to him pulling him in a tight hug; far from the warm greeting he had expected, Max received nothing but a hiss and a harsh shove backwards. He was about to complain but stopped when he saw Kai take the neko-jin's chin and tilt it upwards before bending slightly to check for damages to the bruises Max could now see clearly.

"Oh, sorry Rei…I guess I wasn't thinking." Max laughed sheepishly and was relieved when the Chinese teenager returned the laugh.

"Nah, I'll be fine; you just took me by surprise is all." Soon everyone had said their greetings and had moved to the kitchen for some breakfast. Hillary sat as far from Tyson as possible in a random chair in the far corner of the room, since her breakfast consisted of coffee and a single roll she was done already. Tyson sat with his back to the door scoffing down everything put in front of him whilst Max ate a meal of reasonable size whilst laughing at is, er, _enthusiastic_ friend on Tyson's right. Rei had situated himself across from Max and was busy eating a slightly smaller breakfast than usual, most likely not feeling up to eating that much just yet. On Rei's right sat Kenny, with a few slices of toast placed next to Dizzi on whom he was typing away so fast that smoke was practically coming off the keys. Kai had already eaten at around the time the sun rose; he didn't remember waking up, nor did he remember sleeping. Actually Kai never remembered _actually_ sleeping, he might have gone to bed and dozed a little, but most of the time it was like he replenished while he was awake without even noticing; his line of thought never broke, he never felt all that tired unless he had used more energy than usual, as he had done when he had fought Brooklyn for example.

As he didn't require a chair, Kai resumed his position from last night and leant against the wall by the door and breakfast continued, after which they all sat round the table questioning Rei on the night before. At around ten the questioning ceased and Kai was about ready to finish what the thugs started; was he really that stupid? Why on earth did he risk his life to save some rich kid he didn't even know? Kai was honestly surprised that Rei could ever be so reckless, but he supposed the neko-jin had always had some sort of impulsiveness as an underlying quality; he was usually very reserved and always in thought before actually deciding on anything, but the prospect of danger never seemed to hold him back, he would just take slower steps through it, but that secret rashness made sure he never thought _too_ much, never turned away. Kai supposed even the smallest things get the best of the larger things once in a while.

Kai's thoughts were interrupted when he noticed the presence of someone next to him in the doorway. Looking up he saw that Lace had finally awoken and her silver orbs were fluttering across the room, each time resting a few seconds on Rei before moving on as if he would collapse again then and there. Damn! What _was_ it that possessed girls to keep appearing next to or near him without making so much as a sound _close_ to that of even a breath? She had been so silent that not even Rei's ears had picked up on her, obviously no one else had save for Hillary who had been apathetically looking round the room when the female neko-jin had arrived. Kai turned his head to her, and Lace returned the favour and nodded a 'good morning' to him. It was this movement that Rei noticed and his face lit up when he saw who had joined them.

Lace's eyes fell back to Rei and he gave her a big grin and a wave.

"Good morning! It's Lace right?" Rei greeted rising from the table and walking round to stand in front of the one who had rescued him; and held out a hand, "I'm Rei; I'm also sure that you already _knew_ that but it's nice to be polite!" Lace smiled a little, but raised eyebrows as well as if to say 'you're insane,' she didn't say that; she said something different.

"You're cheerful this morning; K'cheh, glad to see you're ok." If anyone noticed the hint of bitterness in her voice; they chose to ignore it along with the random syllable and a half in the middle of her sentence. By this point, Tyson was the _only_ one in the room who hadn't noticed Lace's presence; unfortunately for him however, Lace had noticed Tyson. She wrinkled her nose as she watched him stuff his face from behind and looked questioningly at Rei as she nodded her head and jabbed her thumb at the appalling sight.

"Only everyday of his disgusting little life," Kai sneered from his position at the wall; correctly interpreting the gestures as 'does he do this _every_day?' Lace watched in disgust as Tyson finished his plate, but when he reached for more food that sly glint that had also been present the whole time spread across her face to reveal a sadistic smirk. The second Tyson's hands were closing in on a plate of bacon, Lace reached of his right shoulder and flicked the plate Tyson had just licked clean so that it slid off the table where with one fluid movement she caught it and walked across to the sink where she released it into the ready and waiting soapy water. Tyson didn't notice at first but when he moved to start dealing large portions of bacon onto his plate he stopped dead, put _down_ the food (A/N: gasps) and looked around. When he spotted Lace leaning innocently against the counter next to the sink he went berserk.

"What the _hell_ did you do with my plate!?" He screeched, "I wasn't done _eating_ yet!" Tyson was now jumping up and down in front of the blonde girl; much to the amusement or shock of everyone else. They all shared one of two opinions; one; this girl was brave, two; this girl was stupid. Everyone looked on curiously, wondering how such a bold girl would deal with the annoyed bluenette; the response she gave him was to say the least, unexpected. After issuing the raving teen with a sweet sympathetic smile (of which only Kai could recognise that devilish glint in her eye) she opened her mouth and said very sweetly,

"Wo shi bao qian di dan shi wo bu yue ni di yu yan." Tyson stopped jumping around and stared at her with confusion, he then turned round to Rei who looked just as confused, but for a different reason. He quickly decided to interrogate her.

"Ni bu zai ri ben ren zhong gang cai zai dui wo shui ma?" He questioned her in Chinese, a little confused at the situation.

"Zhei yang ni di dian shi shen ma?" She retorted back, a little annoyed that she was being distracted from the distinct look on Tyson's face that she had not been able to inflict upon anyone in the past twelve hours or so.

"Ni gang gang guo Tyson ni mei you shui ri ben ren." Although no one knew what the conversation was about (apart from Kai who was smirking immensely at this point) everyone could hear the exasperated tone in the Chinese boy's voice.

"Gai zheng; wo shui wo mei you shui ta de yu yan; ru zai, wo bu shui bai chi…" With that comment, Rei burst out laughing before replying in clear concise Japanese.

"Oh you're cruel!" Tyson looked from one neko-jin to the other; Rei decided to leave out Lace's little joke but informed the rest of the group in on what was going on, "Lace said that she didn't speak your language Tyson." Tyson made a look of understanding and then drew his attention to the corner of the room where Hillary was trying to figure something out (having heard Lace talking to Rei earlier) but she seemed to be content when Rei winked at her unnoticed by Tyson.

By noon, John had contacted Kenny once more and it had been arranged for Lace's friends to arrive at half past one; around lunchtime. They were all sitting outside and round the back, Tyson was inside fixing drinks and the bladers were taking a break from training; it may have been autumn but today was unusually warm. As Tyson was out of earshot, Dizzi took this opportunity to show the group just what had been happening between Lace and Rei (who were also in the kitchen; making lunch)

"As our little blonde pulled such a _daring_ act earlier I just _had_ to switch on my camera for it! So I now have the entire conversation on my disk and we all know what wonderful things happen when you have a very bored laptop installed with a translator…" The amusement in the computer's voice was intriguing and soon everyone was gathered round to see the screen (save for Kai as he had had the understandable version first hand seeing as his Chinese was quite fluent) as they all wanted to know what she had said to make Rei laugh and call her 'cruel.'

On the screen, they could see the screen from earlier, accept now, there were subtitles rolling along the bottom of the screen.

"What the _hell_ did you do with my plate!? I wasn't done _eating_ yet!"

"Wo shi bao qian di dan shi wo bu yue ni di yu yan." (I am sorry but I don't speak your language.)

"Ni bu zai ri ben ren zhong gang cai zai dui wo shui ma?" (Weren't you speaking to me in Japanese earlier?)

"Zhei yang ni di dian shi shen ma?" (So what's your point?)

"Ni gang gang guo Tyson ni mei you shui ri ben ren." (You told Tyson you didn't speak Japanese.)

"Gai zheng; wo shui wo mei you shui ta de yu yan; ru zai, wo bu shui bai chi…" (Correction; I said I didn't speak his language; as in, I don't speak idiot…) With that comment, Rei burst out laughing before replying in clear concise Japanese.

"Oh you're cruel!"

"K'cheh!" Lace walked up behind them carrying some fruit that Rei had given her to hand out; she was smiling broadly and speaking in perfect Japanese (you could barely pick up on her real accent.) Hillary looked up at Lace brightly as she took a shiny red apple.

"I hope you can stick around for a while; I think we might get along great!" Lace smiled lazily at the joke before returning inside.

Lace felt a little guilty as she walked along the hallway after having encouraged the brunette to pick on Tyson but then shook her head and smirk; that was Autumn's problem.

**Gliitch: ** Who on earth is this 'Autumn' she thinks of? Hmmm…

**Megsy:** Uh? The Chinese?

**Gliitch:** No I don't speak Chinese, and that translation is probably wrong so I apologise if I have offended anyone's language. Yes I know Kai understands Chinese; it's implied earlier that he knows French and English, naturally he knows Russian and Japanese, and other languages, many other languages, including Latin…hint, hint.


	9. And Then There Were Four?

**Gliitch: **Well hello out there! I am back and filled with many new ideas! Megsy, would care to explain why I took so long?

**Megsy: **Why me?

**Gliitch: **Because I can't be bothered to and you need to say something to me besides a threat or insult

**Megsy:** This is true. Gliitch hasn't updated as fast as usual because everything you see here isn't actually controlled by her. She _is_ the writer for this fic, she _is_ the creator of this fic, but her characters happen to have a life of their own; she has _actually_ had to change some of the characters completely, as well as the plot…really, there are some things here that now mean completely different things

**Gliitch: **Thank you Megsy, now one more thing…

**Megsy:** Oh?

**Gliitch:** As of this chapter, I will be kidna-ahem…_inviting_ cast members to tell the delusional people that believe I actually _own_ beyblade that I don't. I haven't had enough preparation this week so could you do it? Just this once?

**Megsy:** (Sighs) Gliitch does not own Beyblade, she might someday, she certainly intends to try, but right now she's just some person who will enjoy screwing with the characters' heads; mostly Beyblade characters as that is probably what she will write most; and also, mostly Kai and Tala (who will most likely _not_ appear in this Beyblade fic; he will in the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that, and he will even make brief appearances in other random fics so he will actually appear, if only for a few words, in the next fic the category for which someone is yet to guess)

**Gliitch:** You talk a lot that had to be one of the world's longest disclaimers.

**Megsy:** (Whack)

**Help Like You**

Chapter 9: And Then There Were…Four?

At half past one, everyone was outside in the courtyard on a blanket or on the floor or on the decking; depending on who got there first. Lace was sitting on the blanket that had been placed by the deck, her legs were stretched out and she leaned back on her hands so that her face was covered by the shade of the porch roof and she looked at the sky with great boredom. Hillary was sitting on the dusty floor to Lace's right, chatting away animatedly, or to be more precise, complaining about Tyson; said bluenette was sitting on a bench on the decking, listening in with an annoyed look on his face but he never said anything. Next to Tyson sat Kenny, tapping away on Dizzi, as always. Max was sitting on the blanket on Lace's other side, leaning forward and laughing at the constant string of insults that proceeded from Hillary's mouth. Rei was in the kitchen still; setting the table ready for lunch and Kai was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the door to the bench.

All of a sudden, Lace's ears twitched about nervously; her left ear settled to face forward at the archway to pick up on a source of sound currently invisible, but the other ear still twitched about incessantly, as if sure something was perched in the shadows. Soon, everyone heard it; voices were passing back and forth between what seemed to be at least two young females whom soon rounded the corner to reveal both John and a young girl whose jade green eyes could be seen shining from across the yard. Tyson (who was once again the last to notice the new arrivals) looked up once he noticed that Hillary had stopped insulting him and that her attention was elsewhere only to leap out of his seat and point an accusing finger at John's companion.

"_You_!" Tyson yelled in shock running over to about half way across the yard staring at where she stood in the archway.

"Me," she confirmed smirking at him folding her arms triumphantly "is that all you have to say?" Tyson stared a little longer before straightening up and grinning at her brightly.

"Lunch is on the table; may I return the favour?" Tyson made a huge sweeping gesture of a mock bow holding his hand out dramatically with a devilish grin on his face; the girl flew into a fit of giggles before taking his hand with equal drama.

"You certainly may Mr. Tyson, but does that ability lie with you? I'm sure that the food will be gone by the time _I_ get there!" The giggles evolved into a full blown laugh that once again removed the strength from the girl's legs as she fell onto Tyson who sighed and propped her up either not noticing or choosing to ignore the practically venomous look Hillary was sending their way. John was laughing from behind the two and was apparently enjoying the scene; when she stopped laughing however, she looked concerned.

"Lace…" she began, the tone in her voice alerted even her companion who promptly straightened up a little flushed from all the laughing; she was still grinning broadly though for some unknown reason, "please try to remember she hasn't seen you for nearly eighteen hours," here her own serious expression cracked into an evil smirk and the light caught her glasses ominously, "so try not to completely incapacitate her before we've even entered the qualifiers eh?" At that almost everyone developed a look of confusion, Kai remained as he was paying little attention on the outside but doing cheerful flips on the inside, (she had been a blader hadn't she?) Max gained a look of sudden realisation which caused him to smile a little also. Lace also donned a look of realisation but it was clearly something that she was _not_ happy about.

"Lace! Lace! Lace! Lace! Lace! Lace! Lace!" There were a series of high-pitched squeals and a bright orange blur and the scene stopped with Kfrieda sitting on the chest of, and grinning down at a much winded Lace; said neko-jin was glaring back up at the small child, the fur on her flattened ears standing on end. As her fangs started to grow a little longer she hissed at Kfrieda menacingly.

"Three…" she began, claws also forming on her slender fingers as she said this, "two…" by this point Kfrieda had back off slightly and Lace was sitting up fully, a tail revealing itself behind her; the fur here was also standing on end and the appendage was swishing angrily, "one!" With this last word Kfrieda yelped and bounded away jumping all over the courtyard, Lace chasing her easily. It seemed that Kfrieda may have been in with a chance when she leapt onto the high wall but Lace made an expert pounce toward the brick. No, she could clearly not jump like Kfrieda, but she didn't have to; her feline DNA seemed to affect her skills at clambering up practically flat objects and her hunting & pursuit skills were obviously too much for her prey to withstand much longer. Such an assumption was proved correct as the two disappeared out of sight onto the roof of the dojo; a shriek echoed through the air followed by Kfrieda as she sailed toward the ground where she landed in a heap in front of John, Tyson and the other girl.

"Kfrieda!" Max yelled as he ran toward her, looking up he saw that John was smiling widely and the other girl was once again leaning on Tyson for support. A smaller giggle drew his attention to Kfrieda who in turn was smiling at her attacker whom had recently returned from the roof.

"It's nice to see you too!" Lace grunted at the girl before turning to go inside.

"K'cheh, I would rather greet a pack of rabid dogs," the neko-jin retorted, now back to 'normal,' "now that everyone's here perhaps we can eat, K'cheh?" Kai snapped from his stoic position and stared around counting mentally, 'Only four? I was so _sure_ that…'

"Is there a problem Mr. Kai?" Kai looked down at the girl who was still leaning slightly on Tyson for support; he quickly regained his icy composure before answering.

"No problem at all Miss…"

"Autumn, my name is Autumn."

"…Miss Autumn, in a desperate attempt to seal off the idiocy that leaks from quite a few of the people here I was rather lost in thought and didn't notice you arrived." Kai lied, with an icy tone cutting each word. Autumn smiled and darted forward dragging Tyson with her and was about to enter the house before she quickly turned back as if she had forgotten something; she smirked at Kai.

"You know Mr. Kai, they say that the reason people here get lost in thought is because it's such unfamiliar territory; you think about that now!" Then she vanished into the house along with Tyson; everyone soon followed and Kai was left, for the second day in a row, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

**Gliitch:** Ha! I bet you all thought that the lady in grey would show up! Nothing is ever predictable with me!

**Megsy:** As Gliitch is a little hyper right now, the duty lies with me to apologise for the delay in update; the duty also lies with me to point out that Gliitch does update more often than a lot of fics

**Gliitch:** I'll be seein' ya!


	10. A Little Clarification

**Gliitch: **Woohoo! Yeah! I'm back baby! Kinda forgot what the hell I was gonna do with this chapter, oh well! Never mind! It's all sorted now!

**Megsy: **I'm back ya big freak of nature

(Walks in with a large, moving sack that appears to be yelling)

**Gliitch:** Ah! You got him then!?

**Megsy:** Yeah

(Throws sack to floor and a very annoyed Daichi rolls out)

**Daichi: **What the hell did ya go kidnap _me_ for!?

**Gliitch:** The disclaimer

**Daichi:** I'm not even part of the damn story!

**Megsy:** That's probably why you're here now

**Gliitch:** You're surprisingly intelligent

**Megsy:** …Thanks

**Gliitch:** No problem. So what do ya say Daichi, do the disclaimer? Pretty please? For me?

**Daichi:** No

**Gliitch:** Okay, fine, I guess I didn't have as much motivation as I thought to pair you up with-

**Daichi:** Okay! Okay! I'll do it! Gliitch does not own Beyblade or any of its characters, that includes me (but as long as she's willing to write me into that 'other fic' that should appear in two or three fics time with ahem then I will be only too happy to oblige.) Also, try not to steal her plot or characters, not without permission anyways

**Gliitch:** Thank you Dai-Dai

**Daichi:** Dai-Dai?

**Gliitch:** It's a spoiler…

**Help Like You**

Chapter 10: A Little Clarification

Annoyance; that was exactly what Kai was feeling right now. As lunch had progressed it had become apparent as to where everyone had met everyone else and a few details were finally slipping into place. One of those details was that John actually _was_ the name of Kenny's friend, and the name 'Jonathon Holly' _actually_ appeared on her passport. The rest of the details were far more important and were as follows. These girls were part of a beyblading team who had arrived in Japan for the qualifying rounds in the tournament; that much was filled in by Max. The girls were good people and should stick around and train with them instead of going to the trouble of paying for a hotel was Tyson's idea; after having heard the circumstances of his encounter with Autumn, the fact that this was a rather biased opinion was put forward by Hillary who, (though anyone was yet to notice,) _really_ did not like the stupid, prissy blonde. Surprisingly, in aid of Tyson's argument, Kenny wondered aloud to John if this would be a good opportunity to discuss techniques, strategies and training; he seemed to have taken a great interest in this girl with so much intellect. Rei did express some agreement toward the idea also; though everyone believed it to be an act of gratitude in reality he had just been thinking back to what Apricot had instructed him to do so mockingly; _"be a _good_ little kitten and make sure that she stays happy, content, out of trouble"_ That would certainly be easier if she was here; where he could see her.

Even though the decision was practically made already, and that this was the residence of Tyson and his grandfather, the decision of whether or not the girls were to stay was apparently up to Kai; he raised an eyebrow as everyone in the room glanced at him hopefully. In all truth he didn't really care. The other girl clearly wasn't with them, so he had no interest in these girls. Although, the Bladebreakers were famous, their battles were usually aired worldwide, these girls would most likely know a lot about them and their moves; they would be at a disadvantage if he sent them away. If Kai let them stay on they would surely end up training together, Kenny could collect data, and they could share information, and perhaps bridge the little gap in status and advantage. Kai's head thought it through twice to work out any kinks, but right before he opened his mouth another thought came to him, one that he found encouraged him further.

"Sure, whatever. Today's been a long day so there won't be anymore training, but tomorrow you get up at seven sharp. If you're staying with us, and training with us, I don't care what you're routines are you can't turn up in the middle of our session and disturb us."

"Seven!?" Kfrieda squeaked indignantly.

"That's what I said, if these guys have to get up at that time you do too, if you want to complain you can get up at four with me." Kfrieda stopped and looked directly at Kai before smiling sweetly.

"Four? Now _that's_ more like it!" Kai looked a little taken aback at the small girl's response, but then smirked as he saw the cheerful, sort of proud grin; sure the Bladebreakers had faced tough competition before, but if these girls were _that_ dedicated, there was an even bigger chance of some new world champs this year. Kai was going to be working a little harder it seemed.

By the evening, everyone had settled to their own thing. Kfrieda had fallen asleep several hours prior and was now curled up with a blanket, her head using Autumn's lap as a pillow; said teenagers were settled on the sofa, latter teen's arms around former teen's small upper frame. It really looked like a girl caring for her baby sister. Autumn herself was engaged in converse with Lace and Max; Tyson was presumably fighting with Hillary in the kitchen. Rei had also congregated with the girls and Max in the sitting area but so far had found no need to actually take part in the conversation. Kai was, well, no one knew where Kai was. As for Kenny and John, they had gathered in Tyson's bedroom, and after giving it a quick once over, had deemed it a satisfactory place of work. John made herself comfy on Tyson's bed, whilst Kenny took to the floor on the side of the bed furthest from the door with Dizzi settled on the floorboards in front of him.

"Hey John, your laptop's sending me some weird package, what do I do with it?" Dizzi queried the female brunette who was currently leaning backwards off Tyson's bed so that her chestnut locks fell to the floor; her glasses slightly askew.

"Huh? Oh Fudd has been saying about how much he loved the organisation of your system ever since he sent you the firewall, so he wrote a program just for the two of you to have a little chat." John explained in a bored tone reading what revealed itself to be a French dictionary _(A/N: Ever done this? I have but it was an English dictionary, but we can pretend that she already read one of those)_ whilst Kenny finally realised that ever so significant detail about her laptop; the laptop to whom she spoke; the laptop that spoke back.

"Fudd…" Kenny began, but his sentence was finished by his inversely positioned friend.

"…is a bit beast; yes, I had wondered when you were going to notice that. He's also French, quite a bit of fun to have around really; useful too. Fudd knows an awful lot about bit beasts and beyblading, but he also knows an awful lot about other things like technology and such. _That_ was just when I first met him, since then he's spent all his free time researching information on the internet so now he knows _loads_, including gourmet cooking!" Here, John rested the dictionary by her side on the bed and sat up giggling, "And he isn't just intelligent; he's strong too! Once, not long after I first met him, I was training with him for the first time and we went up against Lace together; he practically shattered her attack-ring in _one_ go!" She kept laughing and ended up rolling on her back; this act promptly landed her on the floor where she abruptly sat up and stopped laughing, looking around her new surroundings in a dazed manner. Kenny sighed lightly at her antics.

"So I just accept it and the rest is taken care of?" Dizzi questioned the now upright brunette.

"Yep, Fudd will take care of everything." Five minutes later saw Dizzi's screen as host to a small window that showed a CGI picture of a park bench on a sunny day, in the background there was a large pond with lots of ducks. Above the bench was a small load bar that finished whatever it was doing quite quickly and vanished only to be replaced with a pretty girl, with light, golden, ginger hair that fell down her back in beautiful waves and her face was home to a pair of large green eyes and a magnificent cherubic smile. The girl wore a pair of pale green dungarees that covered the top of her red ankle boot with a sunshine yellow sole. The bottom of the dungarees was covered in an intricate pattern embroiled with more bright yellow colour. Around the stomach area of the dungarees was a semi-circular pouch with a yellow button holding it in place on each side. Under her dungarees she wore a tight, short-sleeved top the same cherry colour as her shoes and on her hands she wore a pair of red fingerless gloves each with a yellow band across the back. She was; there was no other word for it, breath-taking.

The girl seemed to notice it too; she spun on the spot admiring herself and looking ever so cheerful before looking out of the screen and directly at the two teens staring intently at the image before them. Of course, only John seemed to understand just who this girl was.

"Wow Dizzi! You look great! I'm jealous now!" She laughed to the girl on the screen who giggled and blushed slightly whilst Kenny tried and failed to keep his jaw from hitting the floor.

"Why thanks John! This is a really neat program; Fudd sure has a way with code!"

"Merci mademoiselle, might I say zat you look particularly exquiseet thees evening?" A young teen boy walked on screen dressed in a pale blue tuxedo with a dark red bow tie, with a white shirt and shoes. His hair was black and combed neatly ending around the base of his neck and was covered with a pale blue top hat with a white band around the base. Said item was lifted off the boy's head as he leant forward and gave a bow to the Dizzi character.

"Monsieur Fudd I presume?" Dizzi questioned, giggling at the other avatar's actions as he took her hand and kissed it.

"Ah, it is apparent that you mind is as staggering as your appearance ma Cherie." Dizzi blushed furiously and then took the sit Fudd offered her on the bench next to his own avatar.

Over the next few hours, John and Kenny had a lot of fun planning out new scenes for their bit beasts to travel to, including a walk along some cliffs, a quick adventure in a medieval wood, a shopping centre and eventually a cinema. Here all four decided on a movie to program into the viewing screen and they ended up watching 'The Da Vinci Code' together, by the end of which, John had fallen asleep on Kenny's shoulder. The two laptops continued sending messages back and forth to each other over a table in a café whilst Kenny gently removed John from his shoulder and to the bed, vaguely noting that including Tyson whom he assumed slept in his own bed, John was now the last of what was currently a variety of four different people who had slept in Tyson's bed in the past forty-eight hours. As she lay there peacefully, Kenny started thinking about her; she really was a lot like him, what with her love of technology and knowledge, she definitely had the same sort of affection for beyblades, a bit beast in her laptop, wait… something else she had said hit him. As if on cue, John stirred a little and gave a little grunt by way of questioning the confused look on the Chief's face.

"Hey, earlier… what do you mean by '_training_ with him'?"

"Well duh, what do you think? I mean like bey-battles and matches, the battles between bit beasts and beyblades alike," she mumbled, eyes half closed.

"But Fudd is in your laptop…"

"And?" With that, John's eyes once again fell victim to the sandman; nevertheless, Kenny continued to talk quietly to her unconscious form.

"Did you…? …Can you…? …Is there a way to get Dizzi out of my laptop?"

**Gliitch:** well it's not much of a cliffie but what the hey? Who cares? It's still got a point of interest hasn't it?

**Megsy:** right… well I'm just going to respond by congratulating you on finally updating

**Daichi:** hey! Leave Gliitch alone! She just wanted to make sure that the story _actually_ had plot as oppose to general ramblings and head-screwing!

**Megsy:** and _you're_ just sucking up so that she pairs you up with-

**Daichi:** am not!

**Megsy:** are too!

(The fighting continues in the background)

**Gliitch:** sigh well, see you guys next time!


	11. You Learn Something New Everyday

**Gliitch: **well, I'm back again! Megsy will be back too, but she needs just a few more seconds; isn't that right Megsy?

**Megsy: **(shuffles in with another large sack) yes, very right. Here he is all ready to go; now can I have my violin back? I need it to kill people

**Gliitch:** but of course! Now, let's open the disclaimer sack shall we?

(Out rolls Tyson)

**Tyson:** and I'm here because…?

**Gliitch: **you're going to do the disclaimer

**Tyson:** what happens if I don't?

**Gliitch:** you suffer a brutally slow and painful death, now you put your brain cell to some use and I'll reply to my very first spontaneous review! (i.e. someone who doesn't know me therefore someone whose opinion is reliable.

_GoddessPhoenix3173: I'm really glad you like my story and my writing, I'm sorry this took so long but I hope it was worth the wait!_

**Tyson:** so what happens if I do? Something good right?

**Gliitch:** I suppose so yes; that is the most optimistic way of putting it

**Tyson:** what's optimistic mean? Oh! It means accurate right? So that means I got it right? Okay! I'll do the disclaimer! Gliitch does not own beyblade or any of its characters, just this fic and its OC's

**Gliitch:** (straps Tyson to a torture table) optimistic means positive you idiot

**Tyson: **what!? But this isn't positive!

**Gliitch:** it is in comparison to a brutally slow and painful death; this is the brutally slow and painful death minus the death, enjoy the chapter guys!

**Tyson:** arghhhhhhhhhhhh!

**Help Like You**

Chapter 11: You Learn Something New Everyday

Kai awoke in the semi-dark and looked out the window to see the small orange glow on the horizon. It was nearly dawn; checking the time he found that it was indeed four a.m. Kai got dressed and went to make a small bit of breakfast, noting on his way to the kitchen that neither Lace, Kfrieda or Autumn were in their beds. If this was the case he assumed that John was also awake though he couldn't be sure as Kenny had appeared last night announcing that she had fallen asleep and he had put her down in Tyson's bed. Kai supposed he'd find out when he reached the kitchen where they should be having their own small breakfast; 'should' being a keyword. There was no one in sight, although there was plenty of evidence to suggest someone had passed through recently. The table was set and ready for breakfast, an assortment of bacon; eggs, sausages and toast were being kept warm in a low-heated oven to make sure it wouldn't burn or go cold. A note was leaning against a jug of orange juice in a very neat sort of scrawl in kanji. (A/N: No I'm not going to use kanji, I'm going to write it in English and _you_ are going to use your imagination)

_Thank you for all you hospitality! As a token of all our appreciation please enjoy your big fry-up breakfast! We're waiting to train with you at the park and we've packed a picnic so hurry up! We're at the far side of the park in the forest, Max knows where apparently. Unfortunately Mr Hiwatari this does mean that if you don't know where we are, you're either going to have to skip the first couple hours of training, train elsewhere or simply look for us. Of course you could just wake Max up and so that the others don't get lost wake them up too but we both know that you're not _that_ cruel are you?_

_Well, see you in a little while hopefully,_

_Yours,_

_John_

Kai smirked looking up from the note already knowing that these girls would be formidable opponents in the upcoming tournament. Setting the note back down Kai noticed that one plate had actually been served out, (and a fairly large amount at that,) and he smirked once more as he sat down to eat. These girls were quite odd, sweet, but odd nevertheless. After finishing his breakfast, Kai cleaned up and made for the park. By the time he got there, the sun was making a definite yellow glow across the eastern sky; it wasn't visible over the skyline yet and wouldn't be for several hours. This position of the sun cause sepia to flood through the park like the river did when it rained. Kai made straight for the forest on the other side of the park, he might not know exactly where to go but once there he'd probably hear their blades crashing about if they were training as hard as he thought they would. Once there however, Kai discovered that not a single sound was to be heard, and no amount of calling or searching yielded any result. After about ten minutes Kai was about to give up and train by himself elsewhere when he stumbled across the clearing where Kfrieda had demonstrated a few of her…skills to Max two days prior. Kai decided that this was the place he was supposed to be but still wondered at the lack of people.

Shrugging it off, Kai removed Dranzer and her launcher from his back pocket and set her up but he never got round to launching it; it was at that moment he noticed a shock of plum amongst the russet coloured trees. Turning he saw that the girl in grey had indeed reappeared and was now leaning against one of the trunks that he had passed on his way onto the clearing smirking at him. Yes; he knew it and she knew it; he once again had no idea there was anyone there. Pushing herself off the tree the girl stepped toward Kai, one foot after the other, her path slow but purposeful. She was so ominous right now; it took everything Kai had not to back away. Of course, if hurt him in anyway was what she intended to do; she failed dismally, actually she did something of quite an opposite affect. Once she stood about a metre in front of Kai the girl stopped, and bowed. Kai's eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise and confusion before he immediately regained his composure in time to listen to the girl's words.

"I am sorry Mr Hiwatari." Her voice was loud and clearly spoken in Russian but the powerful, commanding coldness had been replaced with a low and solemn tone of deep regret.

"'Sorry'?" Kai repeated, "Sorry for what?"

"I disappointed you yesterday didn't I? You wanted to see me again right?"

"There was hardly anything you could do about that, the team's the team if they don't know who you are you can't be part of it and you couldn't have been invited. Of course now I'm just plain curious as to how you know about yesterday?"

"I make a point of knowing everything I should apologise for," Kai attempted to argue but unsuccessfully as she raised a hand to silence him, "for every apology, you are granted a little help; do yourself a favour and don't question it. For this time around; a little bit of information…" as much as Kai didn't understand the (in his opinion) unnecessary situation the mention of information piqued his interest.

"Information? About the girls? The other teams in the tournament?"

"No," there went that icy tone again, "about a Mr Voltaire Hiwatari." Kai froze, he couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't think, he could barely _breathe_. Though even in the shock he developed a new level of trust for the girl, he didn't need to see the emotion in the orbs hidden behind her violet mane; her body language was similar to his own when forced to speak of his so-called grandfather: slightly stiff, a few muscles flexing unconsciously, hands curling into slight fists; in fact the only thing that wasn't mirrored was the attempt (obvious only to those who had attempted it themselves) to not spit each syllable of the monster's name,; she differed here by actually succeeding, something Kai himself was yet to achieve. After she was sure that Kai had some time to adjust the girl went on, "as you are probably aware, this person has many connections; it would seem that some of those connections are powerful government people. The result that this equates to, as I am sure you have already deducted, is that Voltaire Hiwatari is no longer in custody of the law and is once again a free man. From here, that is the official information over with and I must go swiftly however…off the record…I think you should assume that his intentions are all that they ever were and more." A sound from somewhere beyond the clearing alerted Kai and he turned toward it; the girl had vanished by the time he turned back.

Having nothing better to do, and feeling that dwelling on this new information before he had the chance to let it sink in would be unwise, Kai instead decided to investigate just what it was that had given her an escape route. Walking in the direction of which the sound had come, Kai was about to step into a clearing when he felt himself be pulled back; and clasped over his mouth. Not knowing what to do; Kai panicked (A/N: hey he just learnt Voltaire was out and about, if you're his most hated person in the world what would be going through _your_ head?) and attempted to reached up and grab the head of the person behind him; wait…that wasn't hair, his hands were definitely on top of this person's head, so what were these fluffy things? A hat perhaps? A hat with two triangular points that had no joins between them? No…they were ears. Kai stopped struggling but instead turned round to come face to forehead with none other than Lace, (well he is quite tall) whom had placed a slender finger over her lips. It was now that Kai noticed that she had gone back into 'hunt' mode as it was apparently dubbed by everyone else. Following where her other finger pointed, Kai saw that around the edges of the clearing, trying to hide in the shrubbery, was none other than Kfrieda, she might not have been so easy to notice if she wore duller clothes, still her stubbornness was quite surprising when it came to even the most trivial matters so it seemed.

Searching around, Kai saw that he could just about make out Autumn to the right of the clearing behind a tree and John…well he almost missed her; _almost_. To the left of the clearing he would have seen nothing if her glasses hadn't caught the light up in a tree. So they were all here, and they seemed to be hiding from…well…each other. It certainly made sense as to why no one answered him but Kai still couldn't figure out what they were doing or why they were doing it. Right now at this moment, Lace stalked out to the centre of the clearing and almost out of instinct, he followed. He had sort of grasped the idea, this was some kind of stealth exercise that although had nothing to do with beyblading could prove useful at some point in the future if any of these girls had hopes of going to law enforcement…or becoming ninja or…stalkers. The each girl went about it was most likely very different. Lace for instance would put herself out in the open the second she knew just where her hunters were and would keep track of them that way. John it seemed was quite aware of this, he noted that the second they had left their hiding place she had vanished from hers, something Lace hadn't noticed until it was too late and her ears could be seen twitching frantically trying to pick up any clue of where she might be. 'This could be a bit fun' Kai thought to himself as he smirked and raised his hand.

"I'm going to have a go." He said loudly for all the hidden bladers to hear. With that he ran to where John had previously had been, if she had moved then it didn't matter where she _was_; it mattered where she _wasn't_. Once he disappeared into the darkness he could then participate properly, now _there's _a mistake to learn form if there ever was one. The second he entered the trees a powerful force was applied to his chest sending him clean across the clearing from which Lace had now vanished. His attacker immediately revealed herself as John and she smiled at him.

"You really shouldn't say such things until you've figured out _all_ the rules; such as what happens when you actually manage _find_ someone." Kai stood from the ground discretely nursing his ribs; she could really pack a whollop.

"So what _does_ happen?"

"A sparring match between those concerned. If you surrender or you are put in a bad position (namely one that could get you killed in real life) then you lose." Kai said nothing but nodded slowly a few times, but just when he was about halfway through a nod he lunged at John pinning her to the floor by her shoulders, one knee digging into her left hip, the other dangerously close to her throat. He might have been causing a little pain but that didn't concern him; it wasn't nearly as much as she had inflicted on him (although he would _never_ admit that) and it was part of the rules.

"Like this?" Kai mocked smirking down at her surprised face which quickly turned into a smile.

"Yes, just like this," she beamed before he got off of her and helped her up. As John dusted her clothes down Kfrieda came bounding out of the trees clapping her hands and Lace wake in with a bored expression carrying a hysterical Autumn.

"Wow! You beat John! No way!" Kfrieda squeaked annoyingly.

Later by the beydish, where everyone had gathered and where Kfrieda and John were matching against each other, the purpose of the game was at last explained to the Russian blader.

"To be truly prepared, to be truly strong, we need to have the conviction to fight against _anyone_, no matter who it is, friend or foe. Even the Bladebreakers went their separate ways a few years back, the same could happen to us so we need to we prepared for that. Anything could happen to us. K'cheh, surely _you_ understand that better than anyone." Kai nodded and looked up to where sunlight could be clearly seen filtering through the trees. Lace; she had seemed so fragile and delicate that night, but time had proven that her only emotional attachment was to someone whom even Rei only reminded her of. It was obvious that each tear was only an old wound that had been opened up, but again it could only ever be obvious to someone who had seen it so many times; the bio-volt had been full of such tears. A rustling was heard and the girls and Kai looked up to see Max bounding through the trees closely followed by the rest of the Bladebreakers.

"Alright let's go!" Kfrieda yelled gleefully pointing her newly set up beyblade (John had withdrawn to go check some data) at none other than Tyson whom smirked.

"You're on! Don't think I'm gonna go easy on ya just 'cause you're a great chef!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way!"

**Gliitch: **(has been forced to release Tyson) well it was fun while it lasted. So, did everyone have fun this chapter? Behold the return of the girl who screws with Kai's head!


	12. Course of Action

**Gliitch: **alright! We now have a twelfth chapter! Let's all cheer! Woohoo! As Megsy hasn't actually returned just yet we'll go straight to answering some reviews! Okay…one review, still it makes me happy!

_GoddessPhoenix3173: I'm glad you liked it! And yes, poor Kai; I'm glad you don't seem to be a violent person, the pending torture makes even me feel like dying a slow painful death, but I can't or else I'll not be able to finish the story! Nya!_

**Megsy:** quit rambling before you give the whole plot away.

**Gliitch:** what? No sack?

**Megsy:** he came quietly

**Rei: **you both know I was never one to make a fuss

**Gliitch:** Rei! Hey, hey! Don't suppose you could do the disclaimer for us? And bake cookies!?

**Rei:** I can only do one thing at a time!

**Gliitch:** well, I guess logically you should do the disclaimer first and then the cookies or we could get sued in the middle of baking and we'll never get to do _either_!

**Rei:** alright! Alright! Gliitch does not own beyblade or any of its characters, she owns only her insanity

(Starts baking)

What are you waiting for? Go read the chapter!

**Help Like You**

Chapter 12: Course of Action

Rei sat down in the kitchen having finished cleaning up and sighed listening to the shout, chatter and TV heard from the other room. Upon hearing footsteps he looked up and smiled at Lace who offered a lazy smile in return before taking the seat opposite him; her face suddenly quite sullen. Lace had proved to be quite an icy person most of the time and a little bit sadistic where matters concerning either Tyson or Kfrieda interfered with her preferences. Actually Tyson still hadn't figured out that Lace could in fact speak perfect Japanese, it was quite humorous. Now though, in the silence of the kitchen, the lazy smile had vanished and was replaced with a look of brooding. Rei had to question it; Apricot forever ringing through his head.

"Lace?"

"What's wrong with Kai?" She asked suddenly and Rei had to think over what she said at least twice before he could fully comprehend, and then he had to figure out what she meant. Now that she mentioned it, Kai _had_ been a little off today; when the group moved somewhere he dragged behind, keeping his head down and arms folded as oppose to his usual habit of strutting ahead trying to remove himself from the others as fast as possible. Actually he had seemed reluctant to leave them at all; normally he would take any opportunity to stay behind. He would say he wasn't interested in childish pastimes or in films if they invited him out or say he wasn't hungry if ever they went out for lunch but today he hadn't left their sides and hadn't scolded Tyson even once; when Tyson complained they were training too hard, Kai had actually agreed to a break, and when they went into town to eat some lunch and Tyson couldn't decide between two meals, Kai had actually _said_ to get _both_ and even _paid_ for the meal. Yes, he had been a little off today; but what would Rei know? Yes he may know Kai a little better than the others; probably because he _annoyed_ Kai _less_ than the others but that only meant that he could notice these things about him, not what was causing them.

Hence the only reply Lace got was,

"I don't know, it seems that today he's just been all quiet and such; I'm not sure why or if anyone else has noticed."

"K'cheh! _We _all have…me, Kfrieda, John and Autumn…all of us since this morning before you guys arrived. He's actually in there with everyone now, sitting on the end of he sofa next to Tyson, watching TV, he's being so peculiar right now, K'cheh?" Rei frowned. In the evenings, Kai would usually go out for a walk and not come back until god knows when, and when he _was _at the dojo he would stay secluded from the rest of the gang, leaning against a far wall with his body language closed and his head down. Kai _didn't_ sit down with them, and he _didn't_ watch TV with them and he most certainly _didn't _do so next to _Tyson_ of _all_ people. It's the law though isn't it? The second you try to have a serious conversation that you otherwise could not have had if the subject of that conversation was present; they appear. Kai materialized in the doorway just as Lace went to get a drink of milk; he leant against the frame and smirked.

"So are you going to join us or were you two planning to get cosy in here?"

"I believe Rei was just taking a break after cleaning up the kitchen; _I _stopped for some small talk on my way to get a drink. K'cheh. Why does it concern _you_ Mr Hiwatari?" Rei looked over to Lace whose body language was set in the direction of the exit indicating that regardless of what Kai said next she would be leaving the two boys; most likely so that Rei could interrogate Kai without him getting uneasy over the 'stranger.' Well it was certainly a better response to Kai's remark than his own furious blush.

"I'm sorry? I did not mention 'concern' therefore there was no 'concern' and I came in here merely to shut Tyson up if not simply move away from his annoying voice."

"If his voice is so annoying then why have you opted to spend all day being as within range of it as possible?" Rei really could have punched himself right then, this was _not_ the sort of thing a smart person should even_ consider_ saying to someone who had rather aggressive tendencies (especially where all mental and emotional states are concerned.) His golden eyes practically glowed with fear and it took everything he had not to tremble with pure terror as Kai gave him the most inauspicious death-glare seen ever recorded on this side of the apocalypse. Rei kept his eyes in one place and instead moved his head rigidly to look at Lace whom was gazing at him through a pair of (very) wide silver orbs; far from the help he thought he might receive when she gave a rather uncharacteristic beam, Lace took the opportunity of the hushed volume of the room's occupants to abandon Rei completely.

"Well even though that sounds like an _extremely_ intriguing conversation I'm afraid I'll have to pass; I have my drink, I've had a quick catch-up session with Rei and now all that's left is for me to stay in close proximity to Kfrieda so that she can annoy me and I will then have an adequate reason to give her horrific nightmares for the next month or so without any guilt on my conscience therefore providing me with an excellent night's sleep. Of course in order to be in close proximity to Kfrieda that _does_ mean that I will have to retreat to the other room so…K'cheh!" And ending on her infamous syllable, Lace strutted back to the living room giving the boys not so much as a glance.

Once alone, Rei let his eyes drift around for a bit before they eventually locked with Kai's blood red orbs, he grinned sheepishly before getting up and heading towards the door.

"Well, now that I've finished tidying up I think I'll go join the others in the living room." Rei couldn't believe his good luck; he was nearly at the door now; he was going to make it! He was going to live! Almost there…a little further…one more step…just one hand death gripping your shoulder to go…near- oh wait…no…hold on…a death grip on his shoulder? Oh dear. Reluctantly, Rei rotated slowly to face Kai; determined to stand tall and not cower in fear; he was most likely unsuccessful but Rei refused to count it as a failure until he wet himself. Rei felt himself be guided back to his seat where he was forced to sit with a slightly painful amount of pressure on his shoulders near the base of his neck; the jolt caused his injury to sting and he winced.

"You're too smart for your own good Rei…but I suppose…this will make it easier," Rei looked up at his captain as the Russian took a seat opposite him; his back to the door; and rested his elbows on the table and interlocking his fingers under his chin in a thoughtful sort of pose…although his eyes were glazed and seemed to be more interested in the wooden surface of the table. Rei wasn't quite sure how to respond so he instead settled for simply sitting up and letting Kai know that he had his full attention. After a few moments of silence, Kai decided that the words he had spent the past few minutes choosing _oh_ so carefully were adequate enough to portray just what it was he needed to say, "it might be just a rumour, there's a chance it isn't true; I don't know how reliable the source is but for some reason I have a lot of faith in the person who told me this so it's something that I've taken seriously…" Kai paused, apparently struggling; he was still fighting with the facts right now; telling Rei would make it official but he had to, he _knew_ he had to, "Voltaire is back."

"_WHAT!?"_ A thunderous roar from the doorway behind Kai made it quite apparent that at some point during the 'conversation' the two boys had acquired a small audience that consisted of the rest of the dojo's current occupants (A/N: not Grandpa Granger; he has vanished into oblivion and shall only appear if I need him to, then he'll vanish again.)

Three hours of thorough searching and hacking over two very advanced laptops being run by two genius humans and their two genius bit beasts, it was eventually proven that Voltaire had indeed been released.

"If someone like Voltaire was released without the media finding out then this must've been planned out by professionals _and_ over a long period of time," Kenny informed the group whom had since congregated in the kitchen.

"K'cheh? Wouldn't that mean that he already planned out his escape route before he was even arrested?" Lace interjected, her let ear twitching slightly.

"It does seem that way," John replied, "either that or he has a team of scary 'mind-possessing demons' working for him."

"I wouldn't be surprised if that were true," Kai stated from his position against the wall; boredom lacing his icy tone now that he had regained his composure that had been steadily slipping throughout the day, "if I called my grandfather a cruel man the depth of the understatement makes me wanna puke; if he made some kind of deal with the devil in order to use a bunch of 'mind-possessing demons' then I'll bet my life that the soul he offered up as payment was ours." Everyone winced slightly as the full impact of what Voltaire's release meant for them began to sink in. He had always been after them and their bit beasts but now…their very lives were probably at stake. Now hold on here, did I say _everyone_? I think I did, yes it was everyone; but the situation had barely even been explained to the female bladers and the full depth of the story most certainly had _not_ been information that the media had; why were _they_ so worried? How could they know how worried they were supposed to be? This thought seemed to enter even _Tyson's _mind as the Bladebreakers plus Hillary looked around at the other girls.

John was in the midst of scowled at her computer screen over the rim of her glasses; her nose and mouth twisted into a malicious sort of snarl. Even Kfrieda whom was usually so carefree and full of joy leant over the table on folded arms glaring at its surface with narrowed eyes. Autumn seemed to be taking it the best; she simply held her gaze low and looked ever so slightly tearful; however she held those tears back as she laid her hand on Lace's shoulder. The female neko-jin was definitely the worst for wear here; at first glance one might even say that she was more stressed than Kai and perhaps she was but at that moment in time everyone in the room could see her obvious struggle with her feline DNA as she clawed slightly at the table top whilst glowering and growling slightly in the direction of the appendage she was using to do so. Distantly, Kai recalled the venom in the grey girl's voice when she had spoken Voltaire's name. Back then; when he had thought of that other advantage; he had thought that, as the girls were bladers and as it seemed that the grey girl was also a blader and that they were all British and _all_ seemed to have done a fair bit of competing in their time, he had thought that even if the grey girl wasn't on their team that there was still quite a big chance that they had at least crossed paths; just once; if only for a short while. Right now, it seemed as though all five girls definitely had something against Voltaire, the grey girl probably knew them through his grandfather if through nowhere else; there was just far too much in common with her and the other team.

So what was happening right now? What came next? Kai _definitely _had a grudge against Voltaire…the other Bladebreakers were hardly part of his (extremely small) fan base…these girls seemed to share some nasty history with him…and the grey girl…Voltaire's name hardly made her smile and…she _was_ the one who had told him about Voltaire…he couldn't be sure but this girl was apparently on their side. The image of when she had turned back only slightly at their first meeting just to mock him; she had smirked then but thinking back on it, perhaps it had been a real smile; in fact thinking back on each smirk he thought he could almost see a friendly grin encoded into each one. Kai's eyes widened ever so slightly as he felt his heart beat a little faster when he thought back to when she had reappeared; had he really been _that_ curious about her? So curious that he felt an enormous joy at seeing her again? At getting a chance to find out more? How odd…but to the matter at hand, it had already been made quite that he was the one in charge here, so that was just what he was going to do. Take charge.

"As entertaining as it is for the onlookers and as useful as it is to pass time; glaring at thin air is actually as surprisingly useless pastime," Kai sneered as he levered himself from the wall, "right now the best thing to do is analyse the situation and then decide on a course of action. So far we have one escaped madman whom we can all rest assured is set to kill at _least_ one person in this room; namely me, after that I'm pretty sure that he holds the same kinda grudge towards the ever-present thorns in his side known as 'Tyson and co.' so we can put their names down in the 'very likely going to die' list, of course he's probably still hell bent on world domination so our bit beasts are in danger as well as the fate of the world. We also have four female bladers all of whom _also _seem to hold a grudge against Voltaire for reasons currently unknown; I say 'reasons' but I mean 'details' because the reason for hating my grandfather is always the same; it's because he's an ass. We have one formidable enemy, three different parties who want to take him down and a tournament that will once again decide the fate of the earth." Everyone stared at Kai apart from Autumn whom stared at the table and spoke in a low solemn voice.

"Three parties? That isn't a mistake someone like you would make and yet, counting only us and you; there are two parties."

"There are three at this particular moment in time explanations on _my_ part can come later; _after_ an explanation on yours."

"No Mr Hiwatari, you are wrong," spoke a chilly voice from the hallway out of sight from the kitchen, "then again so is Autumn, there is in fact only one party whom want to take him down and all members of that aforementioned party are in this kitchen as of…now," at her last word the grey girl stepped into the kitchen smirking as all eyes fell on her. Kai ignored his quickened pulse and simply stared at the purple haired teen, "that is of course…if you will let us join you. Captain Kai Hiwatari of the Bladebreakers, will you accept a little help?"

**Gliitch:** Woohoo! Now how's _that_ for a cliffie!?

**Megsy:** her 'infamous' syllable?

**Rei:** Gliitch realised that Lace's 'K'cheh' was something she had drafted into her original concept to counter her sadistic and cold nature to separate her personality from Kai's as she isn't supposed to mirror Kai too much but just be a little intolerant of everyone around her. Gliitch felt that adding in a random cute syllable was the perfect way to do this but accidentally left it out when she started typing; she has actually recently gone back and edited all of Lace's speech so now anyone who is reading this story for the first time should have absolutely _no_ clue that there was ever any such problem

**Gliitch:** thank you Rei! Ja ne! See ya next time!

(Munches on a cookie)


	13. What's in a Name?

**Gliitch:** well, I'm back! So let's see just what's going to happen next shall we?

**Megsy:** (is tied up, gagged and has just been thrown into the building via a closed and now broken window whilst encased in the disclaimer sack)

**Gliitch:** wow…I really didn't think he'd put up _that_ much resistance, he must be pretty pissed off today

**Tala:** well…yeah of course I am, I can't _believe_ that Kai gets so much screen time and you haven't even bothered (or aren't going to bother) explaining my COMPLETE absence from the story!

**Gliitch:** fine…if I give you a reason for absence from the story will you do the disclaimer?

**Tala:** it has to be a _good_ reason, I'm annoyed that Daichi's gonna get more screen time than me

**Gliitch:** Tala is absent from this story because he happened to travel to France with Kai for the yet to be specified reason and the yet to be specified reason was actually a form of problem that required Tala to stay and look after…and just so that I don't have this sort of problem with any of the other Demolition Boys should they appear to do the disclaimer…they were there too and still are. So for the purposes of this story, the only people even remotely related to the Demo Boys are Kai, Voltaire and maybe Boris.

**Tala: **I might still need persuading…

**Gliitch:** this is by no means a reflection on my opinion of the D-Boys, I love them all to bits; especially Tala who should have a big role in the next beyblade fic I write whichever one that may be, (excluding this one there is a possibility of four beyblade fics but only two of them have main-role Tala; possibly three but that third one doesn't even have a plot it's just random humour so there'll be a chapter for everyone, but it doesn't matter because the two Tala fics are the only two with a developed enough plot to start writing)

**Tala:** better…I think…Gliitch does not own beyblade, but she wishes she did, she wishes with all her heart

**Gliitch:** and as I have received no flames as of yet I can assume that some of you also wish I did…or at least wouldn't mind, of course one lovely person has decided to share that opinion with me!

_GoddessPhoenix3173: well I'm glad you liked that chap because I had fun writing it! As for Rei; yes, I feel like making him kick ass for this story and as for Kai…well you'll just have to read and find out. I hope you have a nice holiday!_

**Megsy: **(has escaped the disclaimer sack) on with the story!

**Help Like You**

Chapter 13: What's in a Name?

_"Captain Kai of the Bladebreakers, will you accept a little help?"_

Kai stared at the girl whom had appeared, but by the time he had figured out what he wanted to say, someone else had beaten him to it.

"K'cheh! What the _hell_ are _you_ doing here?!" Screamed a much stressed Lace whom had stood and slammed her palms down to the table the second she began yelling.

"What do you think I'm doing here? Isn't it my _job_ to be here? Isn't this what I _promised_?" Yes; they were definitely pre-acquainted, though it was hard to say what their relationship was (although even if they were best friends the grey girl's icy tone remained…as did Lace's.)

"Did you know?" Silence, "did you _know_ Voltaire was released?" Lace whispered threateningly.

"Yes, actually I knew it was inevitable from the moment he was arrested; and so I watched, waited and wished I were wrong. As it is…"

"You _weren't_ wrong."

"No, I wasn't."

"_Why_ didn't you _say _anything!? _Why_ didn't you _tell_ us!? You _knew_ you weren't wrong; you _never are_!"

"'Why?' I said nothing because you never asked; you should know me better than that by now," silence reined over the room as Lace attempted to stare down her opponent, "please stop looking at me like that; you look foolish and even more so when you have no reason to look as such. Like I said: it is my duty to be here and watch over you; and like I promised: I will see you all through to your end goals. I am here for the same reason you are; to prove our point." It was now, just as Lace calmed down that Tyson finally found his voice (A/N: damn, couldn't it stay lost a _little_ longer?)

"What the _hell_ is going _on_ here!? Who _are_ you people!? _Especially you_!" He yelled pointing at the grey girl who didn't seem in the least bit fazed that she was being yelled at.

"_We_, dear Tyson are the team known as 'Echo' in the beyblading world; each of us here (much like yourselves) have a rather strong grudge against Voltaire and what is happening is that Lace is rather annoyed that I have kept my presence in Japan quiet up until now; she has already figured out that my absence was the reason for Kai's little bout of confusion yesterday and that I was indeed the one who informed Kai of Voltaire's return. Indeed I suppose she is also a little peeved that I informed Kai with no prompting whatsoever so to clear up _that_ little matter I should inform you Lace that I needed to apologise for disappointing him. As for who _I_ am…my name is Menda, captain of team Echo."

The Bladebreakers sat in silence. As of an hour ago they were once again alone in the house save for the presence of Autumn whom had situated herself by the window gazing out distantly; the rest of team Echo had left in order to give the champions some time to think everything over and would be back soon; Autumn had remained behind just in case they needed to know anything sine she was the least threatening girl on the team, or at least, the girl least affected by Voltaire's return. So now the Bladebreakers, Hillary and Autumn were now packed into the living room and awaiting the answer from Autumn to Tyson's question. After what seemed like an eternity; she finally spoke.

"I can't give you a full answer Tyson, we all have our own very different reasons for wanting Voltaire gone and it wouldn't be right for me to tell you stories that weren't mine to tell." Rei looked up from his position on the arm of the sofa to add on to Tyson's question.

"Could you tell us why _you_ hate him?" Autumn turned to him and nodded determinedly before taking a deep breath. From underneath her jumper she produced a dark aqua-blue blade. The top section was a midnight colour and was in the form of a thick cross. Diagonally over each section the cross mad were much thinner lines and the rest, like Kfrieda's blade, was somehow non-existent and black; so it looked sort of like a Union Jack with only two colours. Also like Kfrieda's blade, there was a dark circle in the centre, the same aqua colour as the main body and it portrayed another unidentifiable silhouette. But where the attack ring around the top of the blade _should_ have been, it was instead lined with black rubber; the attack ring in question was much lower and closer to the base in the same dark blue colour on the top of the blade it spiked out rather like a child would draw the sun.

"I grew up in a quiet area in England with a lot of space; you might have heard of it, it's called the New Forest. We had a lot of land; we needed it; we had a lot of horses too you see. Dad was always travelling everywhere for work so it was mostly just me and mum. When I was nine, mum was involved in an accident on one of the horses; she was fine but she broke her leg. Until she got better it wasn't fair to ask her to look after me so I ended up travelling with dad while the horses were taken care of by the people who lived a few miles from us and rented some of our land. By this time in my life I had already been blading since I was five and I had had Guinness since I was seven – my bit beast," she added upon seeing the blank looks of the room, "I was as mad about blading as I was about horses and I was so thrilled to be travelling with dad; I was so thrilled to get to blade against new people. So when my dad's work landed us in Russia it didn't occur to me that some of the bladers there weren't like the other ones I'd battled." The room was covered with a deadly silence as Autumn paused at the memory; she then took another deep breath before continuing, "when I was exploring I somehow managed to wander into one of those warehouses where the more senior Abbey residents hung out and bladed and I ended up facing them. It was a tough set of matches but I won each of them; they were so impressed they invited me to meet Voltaire; even though they had been so mean and snide to me at first I just brushed it off as them just being typical teenage boys and agreed to go with them. Voltaire showed so much interest in Guinness and I that he even asked us to join the team he managed but I just thanked him for the offer and told him I never had any intention of blading as a real competitor; sure I'd take part in small tournaments now and then but they were all just little mini-tournaments that kids would set up now and then to have some fun."

"After that, Voltaire started to grow impatient with me; he tried to convince me that Guinness wanted to compete against the best and that that was only possible if I took part in the tournaments as part of a team; _his_ team. When I said I genuinely had no interest in competing, he tried to convince me to hand Guinness over so that someone else could make him happy. I refused, left, and thought that was the end of it."

"Grandfather gets what grandfather wants or makes people pay dearly for denying him of it…what did he do?" Kai prompted sternly.

"When my mother had recovered I returned home with father, he stayed a while then left. After a few days I received a phone; Voltaire had somehow gotten my number. He gave me one last chance to join him; a chance that I kindly refused once again and he turned very angry with me and threatened me. I didn't pay much attention to it, I didn't think there was anything he could really do; it never occurred to me that he could find my address just as easily as he found my phone number…with hindsight…I don't think it would have made much of a difference…I don't think I ever really thought that there was anyone in the world so cruel as to…to…" all that could be heard now was a string of sobs; they were still beautiful sounds in a sad sort of way, but her laughter was so much prettier. Tyson heaved himself from his position on the sofa and walked across the room to where Autumn had broken down against the window. Gently grabbing her shoulders he pulled her forwards into a comforting hug and she buried her face into his chest. After a few minutes the sobs subsided and Tyson pulled her away to try and inspect the face that was intently trying to drill holes in the floor via a hard stare.

"Autumn? Autumn what did he do?" Tyson encouraged the young girl who resumed leaning against the window; Tyson stood next to her his hand resting on her shoulder.

"A week later I had forgotten about it; it was the past it meant nothing anymore. I couldn't sleep that night though. I left the house and though it was late and dark it was hardly frightening when you know for a fact that there is simply no one for miles. There was a forest on the outskirts of our land, it was owned by no one and was ever so quiet; it's where I set up my beydish…I suppose you can guess where I was headed that night. After a few hours, I finally began to feel tired and it was gone midnight so I started heading back. When I saw the light I thought mum had woken up and switched on all the lights looking for me, when I realised that the lights flickered and spread further than my house I thought maybe she called the police…actually I think I knew from the first moment the light came onto view but I just didn't want to admit it. There's nothing left now; I started travelling with father again until he died of a heart attack a few years later; too much stress I suppose. I was twelve when that happened and I ended up in a home only to be fostered a week later; that's when I first met Menda. The one who owned the house was the one who fostered me but it became clear that they had done so because Menda had told them to, she was in charge of everything in that house and she offered me the chance to take Voltaire down. I didn't refuse; Lace had already been living there a few years when I arrived and she helped me and became like a sister to me. Now, here I am…reliving it all to the boys who have achieved the goal that Echo has been working towards, the boys that have achieved that goal three times over and yet still somehow not quite succeeded…waiting to hear if for this fourth time, they will let us fight with them."

There was silence for a while before Kai spoke.

"Autumn…that isn't your real name is it?" Autumn looked up and stared intently at Kai, "it's Abii, right? Abii Painter? I remember grandfather talking about you a long time ago." Autumn nodded quietly before explaining herself.

"All of team Echo use a different name to their real one; no matter how random the reason for the name being there the name itself always holds a deeper meaning. It was Autumn when my home was set on fire, that's the name I chose. I wanted to die after it happened I kept believing that it was all my fault, so I chose Autumn to be my name so that whenever someone calls for me or talks to me and it reminds me that I was supposed to be in that fire, when they say my name and it hurts so badly to have survived, that name reminds me at the same time, that I have a reason to live." The rest of the room nodded in understanding and then Max decided to try and lighten the topic a little.

"So what do the other names mean?" Autumn looked up at Max and smiled sweetly.

"Well let's see, I know that Kfrieda spelt her name that way because of her dance school. Kelly's Dance Academy; dancing is her life just as much as sweets and beyblading…so much so that she found a way to incorporate all three. John's real name was a somewhat momentous decision; both her parents are deaf and so she never heard her own name, I don't think she even knows what it is; she named herself John for the simple reason that she wanted to be sure that she had a name that no one would forget and that whenever someone called for her she would always hear it. As for Lace and Menda; I don't know. Lace was named by someone else whom I never met; his name was Apricot. He never told Lace why he named her so but he probably told Menda if she didn't already know so if you're really interested you could ask her." Rei wasn't sure what took hold of him, but suddenly Apricot's words came spilling from his mouth.

"Because it's different to how it should be normally, the simple change of how you use the word has made it sound so beautiful," Rei muttered quietly, but the room was so silent that the whole room could hear perfectly and their attention was now fully on him, "she doesn't act the way you think she will, you can't predict anything about her even though she's so easy to read but it just makes it more amazing…" Rei trailed off to find everyone staring at him intently so he quickly added, "well that's _my_ interpretation of it anyway…"

"Yes…come to think of it…that's probably right," Autumn cut in, "sounds just like her; you're very insightful Rei," Rei smiled and sweatdropped a little, "well as for Menda…no one knows accept her, and there'll be no point in asking; she despises anyone whom tries to get in her head." Kai frowned, Menda rang a bell with him…he'd heard it somewhere; right now wasn't the time to think about it though, he had a decision to make.

"Autumn," the young girl looked at him intently, expectantly, "fight with us." Autumn smiled brightly before looking to Tyson for confirmation who nodded and grinned; he quickly found himself once again supporting the weight of the girl as she burst into fits of relieved laughter that left her in tears, and everyone laughed along too. No one had to do it alone this time.

It was late; Kai had sat himself on top of the roof after the other girls had returned and the short celebration was over. Everyone was now in bed; everyone except for Menda that is. She wasn't in bed, oh no, she was in fact lying right next to where he sat; staring at the stars. Briefly her name flashed through his mind, he knew it but from where? Then he remembered, it had been a long time ago but he was sure that he remembered it from Latin studies, but hadn't it meant…mistake?

**Gliitch: **oh what fun! As far as I know Autumn has no fans as of yet so I think I'm safe making her cry

**Tala:** I like Autumn…

**Gliitch:** (is hiding)

**Megsy:** oh dear, here we go again. Well we'll see you guys next time…hopefully


	14. What's Mine is Yours

**Gliitch:** well I'm back again! Now unfortunately the plot escaped so I'm replacing it with a waffle-plot until further notice

**Megsy:** (walks in with the disclaimer sack) and for a definition of waffle plot you can see the opening notes of the second chapter of Gliitch's Ouran fic entitled 'The Other Host Club'

**Gliitch:** so you got him?

**Megsy:** he hardly put up a fight…actually I think he's enjoying himself

**Sack:** (many giggles)

**Gliitch: **(opens sack and out rolls Max) fancy doing a disclaimer?

**Max:** Gliitch doesn't own beyblade or me or any other characters! She does own the plot and OC's though so if ya wanna use them…ask!

**Gliitch:** you're ever so cheerful for someone who's just been kidnapped

**Max:** (giggles) I just read your pairing notes for the other beyblade fics you're planning…I know who you you're pairing Tyson with in some of the other fics…

**Gliitch:** oO on with the fic! (Chases Max) You had better keep quiet! I need the chance to post it BEFORE people judge me!

**Help Like You**

Chapter 14: What's Mine is Yours

Kai sighed as he left the dojo. It was currently two thirty in the morning; he hated those damn girls right now. As great as it was that they were so motivated and would be of a great help in the upcoming fight against Voltaire the fact that Kai no longer had a single moment to himself was grating. Getting up early in the morning and going to bed late at night used to be the only private time Kai could get when working with the Bladebreakers, but with those damn girls getting up so early… at first he had tried getting up about ten minutes earlier in hopes of getting some time to himself only to find the breakfast that had previously been laid out once again on the table. After grabbing a slice of toast Kai had headed for the forest and about halfway there ran into the all the girls save for Menda; it later turned out that she was already there. Seriously how _early_ did these freaks _get up_?! Throughout the week Kai got up a little earlier each day only to find that each and every time he always ran into them; granted it was always a little closer to the dojo and yesterday he had actually caught them in the kitchen at _three_ in the _morning_! Today; today was different; there was no one; he was free for at least half an hour. Kai made his way through the darkness of the undergrowth but stopped when he heard noises in the clearing; Menda. As (very) long string of profanities left the Russian's mouth as he made his way towards the clearing seemingly undetected by the girl; and just as well; he did _not_ want her to stop her current activity.

So what was it that was so interesting about her current activity? Well let's take a look shall we? We have the clearing; the clearing has Menda; Menda has no concept of gravity; Menda seemingly has the ability to transform random areas of darkness into dazzling white light making it look like she's surrounded by many tiny little shooting stars; and did I mention no concept of gravity. Kai ad just successfully walked in on Menda floating in the middle of the dark clearing and creating a light storm around her; basically just passing the time by defying as many laws of physics as possible at one single point in time. Kai started when he heard a sound only to mentally scold himself for being frightened by the sound of laughter. Wait, laughter? Kai saw that Menda, as she turned and floated in the air oh so delicately, was indeed laughing; she seemed to focus on the little beads of light as she did so. Kai allowed his curiosity to get the better of him (A/N: seriously does _no one_ learn from Rei's mistakes?) and inspected every seed of light that the grey-wearing enigma chose to laugh at and saw much to his surprise; a moth. The moth under normal circumstances would have been beautiful; its wings were dark velveteen grey with thin intricate markings of purest silver to which the moon itself couldn't _hope_ to compare (and truthfully Kai expected nothing less of the girl who could make such a dull colour look so amazing) but these weren't normal circumstances and under the white lights that the moth flitted between so joyfully it shimmered and seemed to emit a light of its own.

"Papilio," Kai's head snapped to his right where Menda had appeared; she seemed to enjoy scaring the hell out of him (not that he'd ever admit it) and it was only now that he acknowledged that she had actually said something to him.

"Begging your pardon?" Kai growled icily.

"Papilio is her name; the moth I mean…_my_ moth." Menda whispered back in Russian just as icily as she held out a gloved hand for Papilio to land on, Kai's eyes widened with realisation as he spoke.

"Papilio is your…bit beast?" Menda smiled and nodded never taking her eyes off the beautiful creature that had once again taken to chasing the streaks of light being painted through the darkness, well he assumed she was watching the moth but he couldn't tell for sure due to that damn fringe. After a few moments of thought, Kai frowned; he knew the word Papilio too…what was it now? He knew that the literal translation was teat or breast but he remembered now…Papilio was used for something else too… "Isn't that sort of a cruel thing to name a moth?"

"Why?" Menda breathed softly; never taking her eyes from the moth; never losing her icy tone.

"Well…why would you name a moth 'Butterfly'?" Menda finally removed her gaze from Papilio to look upon Kai's face before watching the lights dart by.

"Butterflies are such frail things…they can't survive in the cold darkness of night…the flee for those who just want to get a little bit closer…just to see their wings…they always fly away…quite selfish really and yet if you ask…for some reason…people despise moths instead…but moths are stronger. They can face the dark…the cold…and they are affectionate creatures that always let you get close…but no one ever wants to…they aren't _pretty_ enough. Out in the wild there are amazing moths…and ugly butterflies…people often get them mixed up…I don't…I _know_ the difference…the butterfly will always surpass the moth in the eyes of the world…but if people can't really tell the difference then naming a moth 'Butterfly' is enough to deceive them…to make them believe that this beautiful creature is the creature they love most…and when they admit _that_…I admit…what Papilio really is." Menda turned back to Kai whom turned right back and he smirked as he turned away again to watch Papilio as Autumn's own words left his mouth.

"No matter how random the reason for the name being there the name itself always holds a deeper meaning." Kai would have been interested in her reaction if something else hadn't caught his attention.

"That's very true; Autumn was the first to fathom that everything has meaning when you enter _my_ world; after all as much as we hate to admit it we are only as powerful as the people who believe in us and they are only as powerful as they _believe_ we are…a lot of judgement lies on one's name. So what has piqued your interest now?" Apparently Menda had noticed Kai's eyes darting endlessly around the floor of the clearing searching for something.

"Where's your blade?"

"In my pocket."

"But Papilio…"

"What if I told you that everything you know about beyblading, about bit beasts and their powers is only a mere _fraction_ of everything there is that can be known."

"I wouldn't be surprised; we already knew that."

"No, you knew that there was more than what could ever be fully comprehended by one person; you knew that humanity could never fully understand the meaning of a bit beast or a beyblade or the powers granted in the spin. What _I'm_ saying is that what you know is only a _fraction_ of what _can_ be understood; there is so much more power to be found here. A deep bond with a bit beast is more than just power and advantage; it's a _connection_, a _fusion_ of two compatible souls. Have you ever noticed that the only person who seems to understand the bit beast is its master? The bit beast makes cries that to anyone else are just a creature speaking in its own language but _the_ _master_ _always understands_; do you know why?" Kai stared at this icy girl whom had suddenly become so _alive_, there was something in her voice that was probably excitement and yet somehow that frost never left her voice; Kai never blinked away from Menda as he shook his head in answer to her question; completely _captivated_ but that fiery spark in her voice, "because much in the same way that we give them power in battle, they give _us_ power too. They give us the ability to understand their language, they give us the ability to see the other bit beasts that should really only be seen by the spirits themselves…it never occurred to you did it? That Dranzer is the reason you can see her, talk to her, see _other _bit beasts; and she can do more too. This here…this is a smaller scale of what Papilio can do; she can create and control light and dark as if it were all nothing more than a circuit board. Papilio can do it; so I can too as long as we have this bond our souls become one and the same yet individual. I think; John already demonstrated to you just how much of this power can be used and manipulated." Menda looked at Kai and smirked; whilst Kai furrowed his brow in confusion before his eyes widened in realisation.

"What is Fudd?"

"Fudd is a dinosaur; a brontosaur to be precise." Kai looked back into the storm of lights smirking; no _wonder _she could pack a punch! He then recalled the entertaining scene between Lace and Kfrieda when they had reunited.

"So Kfrieda's and Lace's are…?"

"Benson is a frog yes, but Lace…" Kai looked over at Menda who seemed to be struggling to find a way to explain, "Her bit beast _is_ a cat but…that _isn't_ what gave her feline DNA, _that_ occurrence was something else."

"I don't suppose that something else and Voltaire are the same thing are they?" Menda nodded curtly.

The two teens remained in silence for a while; Kai watching as Menda would make the light mould and blend into pictures and patterns and she even made a small, snake-like dragon once. She moved the dragon around and around and it flew around Kai's head and her own before stopping and hovering over her outstretched hand where it melted into a ball of light that she clamp her fist around; a small glow survived from the cracks in her hand. When Menda opened her hand a parade of forget-me-not shaped lights flew out and away on the wind. It was after about half an hour that the sound of feet in the undergrowth made its way toward the pair whom still hadn't spoken. Kai looked up as Lace, Autumn, John and Kfrieda made their way into the clearing each smiling at the sight of the superb display Menda was creating; each sparing Kai glances just to see if he actually was as calm about this scene as he seemed; it was hardly something one witnessed everyday. After a few minutes of 'hello's and 'good morning's Menda decided to speak up a little.

"Perhaps you would enjoy a little performance Mr Hiwatari?" Kai looked around at the girls whom were all situated around the clearing on the floor; looked to his side he saw that Menda too had taken a seat and so decided to join her, "well a performance for you; for us it's practice and control."

"It might be nice…" he mused aloud, receiving a smile and nod from the girls.

Menda called back Papilio whom vanished into a blade that in this light couldn't be seen clearly. After a few moments the other lights vanished and they were left in the darkness of the early October morning; until something in the centre of the clearing began to glow. What was it? It wasn't anything Menda had been doing, it was light yes but it looked more like…fire? The flame in the centre of the clearing grew up and spun round twisting and writhing until it made the shape of a weeping willow swaying back and forth; the light it gave off illuminated the other girls in the clearing clearly showing John with her eyes concentrated determinedly on the image spawning before her. Suddenly from beneath the tree; a crystalline liquid crept out like tentacles create a strange sort of circle made of watery rings that started to spin and meld together creating a sphere of water around the burning form of the tree. Lace and Autumn sat next to each other and turned to nod at each other in agreement before turning back to the magical display in the centre. It was now that areas of the tree crackled and flew off exploding through the water; but what came out the other side was not fire or steam; it was flowers. Leaves and flowers and blossoms of all kinds and Kai stared as each one was caught up in a gust of wind the direction of which countered the sphere of water and the small symbols of nature flew along the breeze around the imprisoned fire. This sight was truly beautiful.

By seven o'clock, Kai and team Echo had done four solid hours beyblade training, the hour from three to four taken up by the sparring game that Kai had been unfortunate enough to walk into a week ago. The six teens were now once again sat around the clearing having a little practice with the powers their bit beasts offered them. Well…five of them did; Kai wasn't even trying, no matter how many times the girls prompted him he simply refused to attempt creating fire (especially if it was the first time when no one would have a clue how well he'd do and he was in the middle of a wooded forest) and so opted to sit and watch the girls practice. It was a few minutes later that a startled group of Bladebreakers eased their way into the clearing not sure what to make of the wooden cat jumping on the fluid-like mouse.

**Gliitch: **(has successfully bound Max with duct tape) well this looks like a fun predicament

**Megsy:** what Max's predicament or the story's

**Gliitch:** both

**Max:** mmph hmph aarh

**Gliitch:** hush…and just as an added present for all the people beautiful enough to support me to the very last line of my fourteenth chapter I have now uploaded the first chapter to a second beyblade fic named QED; so I you're interested and you miss Tala…head on over for some REALLY odd pairings!


	15. Preliminary I

**Gliitch:** well I'm back! Sorry about the very long delay I lost my way on the plot and even though I _could_ have posted a waffle plot writing QED seemed a lot more entertaining and by the time I figured I could start on this again I'd gone on holiday!

**Megsy:** excuses, excuses…

**Gliitch:** shut up and open the sack

**Tala:** why the hell am I back here?

**Gliitch:** because I am bringing you to witness first hand your speck of mention in the story that might actually pan out to be a big plot bunny

**Tala:** (with giant puppy eyes and a wagging tail) really?!

**Gliitch:** really, but I find that I can't get a real clarification on your last name; in some places it's Ivanov and in others it's Valkov. If someone wants to clear it up for me that would be great but I am putting to use my ignorance to make a minor part of the plot line and to put both names into use and it won't be changed so if you don't like it you can ignore it or you not read it; no ones forcing you…personally I usually go by Ivanov

**Tala:** wow! Cool! Oh, sorry about that by the way…

**Megsy:** hn… (continues to nurse broken wrist) just reply to the reviews so we can get on with the story; Gliitch can't do it; she's busy trying to plan out just _how _this tournament is going to work

**Tala:** okay, okay…

_GoddessPhoenix3173: I'm sure Gliitch is very glad you enjoyed Menda's speech and she already apologised for not updating which means I don't have to do it! Score! And as I live in Gliitch's head; I can tell ya, you are gonna HATE Menda by the end of this fic…she's not evil, she isn't going to do anything wrong, you're just going to hate her_

**Megsy:** let's get on with this before wolf-boy over there decides to give away the _entire_ plot

**Help Like You**

Chapter 15: Preliminary I

The next few weeks didn't seem to exist; with the practically non-stop training it al seemed like one long day until one day Tyson found himself being rudely awakened much earlier than usual and why? Today was the day of the qualifiers for the tournament. Opening is eyes (at last) he discovered that the culprit today was in fact none other than Autumn, well she might be a pretty cool sort of girl but a crime was still a crime that she had to pay for and as he was currently being soaked by a glacially cold shower whilst still fully dressed in his pyjamas she had _definitely_ committed a _big_ crime.

"Autumn!" he yelled (now miraculously wide awake,) "you are _so_ dead!" Autumn squeaked and bolted and Tyson darted after her leaving Rei to sidle in behind them to shut off the shower. The two ran around the dojo, Tyson running as fast as his legs would allow and Autumn keeping the same pace a few feet ahead of him without even breaking a sweat…it became clear every time that Tyson put on a sudden burst of speed that she could go a _hell_ of a lot faster than this. It was when he finally managed to chase her towards the pond (I don't know if there is one since it's been a while since I watched it but even if there isn't…there is now!) that Tyson thought he finally had her trapped…that is until Autumn leapt clean across it with room to spare. Tyson skidded to a halt by the edge of the pond staring at the girl who was beaming straight back; he had forgotten she could do this…who Guinness was…he had forgotten the sorts of things that they had been taught over the past few weeks. Everyone (save for Kai) had been trying to hone the deeper powers that their bit beasts offered; it might have been nothing more than blowing a leaf across the courtyard for Tyson, making ripples in a glass for Max or making the bud of a flower open for Rei; it was still hard work that would eventually amount to something so much more. And today Tyson had completely forgotten that Autumn was _far_ more in tune with the 'deeper powers,' how the hell had he expected to outrun a unicorn?

'Well,' he thought to himself, 'I can't out_run_ her; but I bet I can out_smart_ her!' Tyson took up the run again and chased Autumn round the pond, once she was on the opposite side she broke off and ran across the courtyard and back into the house Tyson close at her heel has they both raced into the kitchen and began running round the table before he smirked to himself. Skidding to a halt behind Max, Tyson looked over the blonde's shoulder excitedly.

"Hey! Food!" Tyson looked up at that musical sound that signified the laughter of Autumn and smirked even more. Autumn could run, Autumn could leap great distances with a good run up, Autumn could jump pretty high, Autumn was couldn't even stand up when she laughed. The second she began clutching her chest Tyson darted at her and tackled the young green-eyed beauty to the floor (and remember he's still soaked from that little 'shower') and began to tickle everywhere he could reach making her laugh harder and louder.

"Mercy!" she squeaked at the bluenette whom was torturing her, "mercy! Mercy!"

"And the magic words are…?" Tyson smirked continuing his assault.

"Mercy; I beg of you oh great and powerful Tyson!"

"Much better," Tyson announced as he withdrew from the girl who was now lying on the floor panting breathlessly, "I'll be back in a minute I just need to get dressed." With that Tyson vanished from the kitchen back upstairs to his bedroom as Autumn pulled herself from the floor and moved to pick up a vacant dining chair.

"What's _that _for?" Rei inquired, Lace looked up from her tea to see Autumn holding the chair defensively before returning her attention back to the beverage and answering for her friend.

"It's _for_ Tyson," she explained in her bored and icy tone, "he'll be back you see; when he sees the clock…he'll be back."

Once everyone (save for Tyson who had probably fallen asleep in the shower) had moved into the living room Hillary looked up from her book over to Kenny and John after she was hit with a sudden bout of curiosity (A/N: HELLO! LEARN PEOPLE! LEARN FROM THE REI-CAT!)

"Hey Chief, are there any _old_ teams in the qualifiers?" Kenny looked up at Hillary briefly before looking down and typing away at Dizzi whilst John leaned over curiously.

"Well, there _aren't _any of our old friends in the _Japan_ qualifiers but there are qualifiers just about all over the place so they could well be taking part over in other countries; I could check if you like."

"Could you? It'd be nice to know who we get to re-match against this year."

"Well White Tiger X are competing in China and it looks like the Saint Shields are over there too, naturally the All-Stars are going for it over in America and the Mystiques and F-Dynasty are competing in France for some reason…hm, that's odd…"

"What is?" John questioned curiously blinking wide-eyed at the enormous stats she was looking at for each of the Bladebreakers' 'old friends;' rather impressive…

"I would have thought that the Demolition Boys would be competing, even with_out_ Bio-vault but…I can't find the qualifiers they're in…"

"They're in France," Kai interrupted as he walked in, he held up a hand when Kenny tried to argue that his old team _weren't_ registered to compete, "they _aren't _competing; we had some business to take care of over there…still do actually but Tala insisted that they could take care of everything. It seems that the only people that are allowed to knock the Bladebreakers out of their title of 'Defending Champions' are the Demo Boys," Kai shrugged and flopped down on the sofa next to Hillary either not noticing or choosing to ignore the curious wide-eyed stare he was receiving from John until eventually he could put up with her no longer, "can I help you with something?" he snapped at her icily.

"Demolition Boys…Tala…Tala…Valkov?"

"Geez how long were _you_ at the bio-vault?! He hasn't been _Valkov_ for _ages_! Not since before…" Kai trailed off, seemingly trying to find a way to put it without cursing and yelling, so John finished for him.

"Not since before the experiment?" Kai lowered his head and nodded silently, "I left before they finished, I was kidnapped by bio-vault when I was young and used to work in the lab; I have an original sort of approach to scientific things that usual prove to be far more efficient so…I was worth a trial-run. I never saw the point in running; I wasn't very attached to the world around me back then, it didn't bother me to leave behind people who couldn't hear me when I laughed, cried or even screamed for help. When he had free reign, well…as much as one of the more trusted and stronger bladers could get in the bio-vault, Tala used to drop by the lab frequently. He was a good person back then; a good friend…when they took him for experimentation I…" John face which up until now had been wistful, reminiscent and even dreamy promptly turned into that same glare she had held when they had first confirmed Voltaire's return, "I'd had enough," Kai nodded in understanding, "so what _is_ his name?"

"What?"

"Well if he is no longer Valkov then he _must_ be _something_…"

"Ivanov," Kai cut her off, "he is now Tala Ivanov."

"Ivanov eh? Maybe I might look him up after all of this is over…" John turned back to Fudd completely missing the small pout forming on Kenny's lips; Kai didn't though…perhaps he should set the small boys mind at ease…

"Well let's hope all Tala's adoring fangirls don't try to kill you when they find out that you have more of a chance than _they_ do." Kai smirked.

"What? Oh no, they don't have to worry about _that_. I'll admit that Tala is quite a tasty morsel to look at and if you ever saw his soft side he's quite sweet to be with too but…I don't know, I guess I'm more strength-orientated _personally_, I don't want someone strong, hot and flirty I want someone…sweet…cute…reliable…those types are strong too, but I prefer those who don't know it to those who get cocky with it." John smiled at Kai sweetly before turning back to Fudd; Kai wasn't done yet…just one last touch…

"So someone like Kenny?"

"Yeah…just like Kenny…" John agreed absent-mindedly still not taking her eyes off the screen leaving Kenny to turn redder than the hair of the conversation's original subject.

A few minutes passed and that saw Tyson into the kitchen and Autumn into the living room still armed with her dining chair (though Tyson apparently still hadn't seen the clock) and Kenny and John were still doing some last minute…stuff on their respective laptops until a loud gasp was issued from John.

"Whoa! Holy hell! Those are some _stats_!" Kenny looked over questioningly as John began reading out the certain pieces of information jumping out from that particular page.

"Apparently they're called One-Eighty, and they have four members, one girl and three guys. Their stats are _huge_! There's a good chance they could be our bio-vault team!" Well _that _certainly grabbed everyone's attention as Kenny prompted her to continue, "take this guy for instance; his defence seems to exist without _any_ encouragement! His blade his just _that_ tough and to make matters worse his attack is _bone-shattering…literally_! And not to mention this _Mystel _guy! _He's_ about as powerful as _Rei_ and he _isn't_ even their _strongest_!" Everyone just stopped dead at that; it took a few moments before Tyson (who had entered the room just before John's outburst) took it upon himself to speak up.

"Did you say…_Mystel_?" John nodded receiving a huge grin from Tyson, "that guy with the 'bone-shattering' attack points…his name wouldn't be Crusher by any chance would it?" John nodded again, "and the girl is Ming-Ming?" Nod, "and there's only _one_ more guy?" Nod, "Okay, fifty-fifty chance here so…Brooklyn?" John shook her head, "so Garland?"

"But…how…"

"I guess BEGA changed their name and formed a new team…I wonder where Brooklyn is?" Rei wondered aloud receiving nods from everyone except the girls known as Echo (well the four that were there; Menda has vanished off the face of the earth) whom were just looking shocked, soon Kfrieda (who had been reading over John's shoulder) decided to voice the thoughts of her team.

"_They're_ team _BEGA_!? We were up in the mountains _training_ when the 'Justice 5' went down! We didn't get to see _any_ of it! There wasn't even any _mention _of it in the _sports_ section of the papers by the time _we_ got back! There was no footage of the matches and even John could only find a _brief_ mention about the end of the world!" By now Kfrieda was receiving some shocked facial expressions from the rest of the room; there were people who had no idea who the BEGA team were…the fact that such people supposedly _existed_ was supposed to be nothing more than urban _myth_ and yet here they were, in Tyson's living room. Lace sighed then huffed.

"I'll bet that was the point anyway though," all eyes suddenly fell upon the female neko-jin whose ears were twitching in irritancy, "I'll bet my fluffy, black ears that Menda knew _exactly_ what was going to happen during that tournament and I'll bet my fluffy, black _tail_ that she made _sure_ that we wouldn't have any idea about what went on while we were away…she even took away John's laptop."

"Yeah, that sounds like something she would do…" giggled Kfrieda before she turned in confusion to Autumn whom had collapsed on her chair and began laughing hysterically. After a few moments the young blader became dangerously close to falling off her chair; Tyson managed to rush over and catch her before she did receiving an unnoticed glare from Hillary, he waited a few minutes while she managed to stop laughing just long enough to explain her bout of insanity.

"She _told_ us! She _actually told _us!" she laughed gleefully shaking her head, "we complain _all the time_ about how she _never_ tells us what's going on and that time we _actually called _her on it! We _yelled_ at her! We _made _her tell us! Didn't she say!? 'We are here because for a brief moment in time the world will be on the edge of destruction but _we_ aren't scheduled to save the world until _next_ year,' we _yelled_ at her for being _sarcastic_!" Having been newly stood in an upright position by Tyson, Autumn collapsed against the bluenette in a new fit of laughter struggling out her last sentence, "who…would have thought…she was being…_serious_! We should…have _known_! Menda doesn't…know how…to make jokes; …_everything_…she says…is _serious_!" by now Kfrieda was happily laughing and kicking her legs in the air whist John sighed exasperatedly and smiled shaking her head; knowing that there was no point dragging anything back to Menda one year late no matter _how_ annoyed you were, Lace opted to simply blow a strand of hair out of her face before turning to Tyson.

"So what are _you_ doing in here anyway; surely you haven't finished your pig routine _already_," she sneered deciding that if she couldn't vent her annoyance on Menda that Tyson was the second most deserving of it. It was quite entertaining to talk to him now; he still hadn't noticed since breakfast that first morning that she had been speaking a constant string of _perfect_ Japanese. It was always a game of suspense whenever Lace spoke in font of him to see if he would _finally _figure it out.

"I'll have you know that I have a very _good_ reason for coming in here and that is…that is…" Tyson thought for a moment, shrugged, and then upon seeing Lace's look of amusement snapped, "oh shut up!" Before storming back to the kitchen where he stopped and looked at that particular spot on the wall before remembering just why he _had_ gone to the living room and he then took to emitting a low growl, "oh Autumn!"

"Yeah!?" came the reply from the living room.

"WHY IS IT TEN TO SIX IN THE MORNING!?"

**Gliitch:** well wasn't that fun!? Ooh we're progressing…it is now the morning of the preliminary matches! Next chapter we have the actual matches! Woot!

**Tala:** I have an important role!

**Gliitch:** you're going to be mentioned in a much BIGGER plot in a later chapter and you _might_ even make an _appearance_!

**Tala:** hell yeah!

**Megsy:** where did Brooklyn go?

**Gliitch:** Brooklyn is strong enough to rid us of Voltaire without any trouble whatsoever; that really wouldn't be much of an adventure plot now would it? It would just be the mushy relationship stuff tied in with Kai trying to figure out just who Menda is exactly and why _she_ hates Voltaire…and I can tell you now _that_ won't be pretty

**Megsy:** sadistic little freak…

**Tala:** that she is! That's why she's so cool!

**Gliitch:** just like my precious, precious Tala

**Tala: **OO

**Megsy:** Ivanov; run for your life

**Tala:** will do!

(Runs away being chased by Gliitch)

**Megsy:** I'll see if I can get her back to write the next chapter


	16. Libra

**Gliitch: **(Sneaking in quietly)

**Megsy: **Get your arse over here we can all see you

**Gliitch: **Eep...I wasn't gone _that_ long...

**Tala: **Two years! Frickin' TWO YEARS!

**Gliitch: **Why are you still here?

**Tala: **Oh _that's _nice! I've been kind enough to wait TWO WHOLE YEARS for you to come back and finish the story just so that you're friend is no longer pained from having to kidnap characters and THAT'S how you react...

**Gliitch: **Ah...er...sorry?

**Megsy: **Where the hell have you BEEN?!

**Gliitch: **Look it's not my fault alright?! A lot of stuff has happened! First Mum stole my laptop and then I was kept away from my laptop by a long string of shrinks and then I had to move away from mum and then people died and then there were more shrinks and then there was EXAMS and coursework and EXAMS and then I was dumb enough to take TWO arts so it was like COURSEWORK DEATH BY and then EXAMS and and and it wasn't even all in that order and that's not even everything so forgive me T_T

**Tala: **…

**Megsy: **…

**Gliitch: **I'll just do the review...

_GoddessPhoenix3173: Uhm...glad to be of service...I'm sorry I took so long to update...I have to wonder if you're even still interested..._

**Gliitch: **Right, on with the story. Right just so you know the plot of the story has changed (again) and is now a whole lot darker...and more confusing...see I've grown a lot in the past two years...also...unless the match is incredibly important I'm not going to describe the beybattles...that's effort and I'll never be able to do the visuals justice...

**Megsy:** Wait wait wait...let me get this straight...you've kept everyone waiting two years and now that you're finally updating you're going to be _lazy_ about it!?

**Gliitch: **Bugger off...this fic ain't about the blading...

**Help Like You**

Chapter 16: Tournament Recollection Part One: Libra

**Megsy: **Wait a sec so now you're cutting out the blading altogether?

**Gliitch: **Pretty much...the tournament was just a convenient way to get everyone in the same place...at least I'm giving people's a brief idea of what happened instead of just skipping ahead...so prepare for a chapter entirely in italics!

_FLASHBACK – TYSON_

"_You guys aren't signing up?" I questioned, looking around to see that none of the girls were filling out any forms and John spoke up._

_"Taking a part in the tournament was a backup plan just in case you refused us…if we join on our own then both being powerful opponents we might rank against each other and one of us would have to knock the other out of the running…if that happened it would be too much of an intense battle and give Voltaire's team where and whoever they are too much data…" I just nodded and pretended to understand, blinking as I noted Kai's sudden intense staring match with Menda. I hated silent conversations I really did…especially when they're between people like Kai and Menda._

_FLASHBACK – MAX_

_I wasn't quite sure why I was so zoned out but when I looked at the clock I quickly noted I was going to be late for my match and promptly jumped out of my seat and began bolting for the stadium. The halls were long and narrow and actually quite dark for some reason, perhaps since there were no turn offs they didn't really need more than the light coming through from the stadium. Regardless I just kept running until I noted that it was now darker than it had been and that I'd also just collided with something…no not something…someone. A large burly figure stood in my path as I looked up from my position on the floor and a sneering voice reached my ears._

_"Kids like you should watch where they're going."I frowned, getting up and mumbling a quick apology before darting around him and continuing to run; well I tried to only to find myself be dragged back and held by the collar of my shirt, lifted so that my toes barely touched the ground, "brats nowadays have no respect…always running around…off to play their bloody games rather than apologise…I think that you should miss your little game and apologise properly." This wasn't good. His match was first up and he could hear his opponent's name being called._

_"_Please!_ I really am sorry but I can't let my team down!"_

_"Surely if you cared so much you wouldn't have been late to start with?"_ _The voice was still snide and I had continued struggling against the immensely powerful grip, my heart skipping a few beats as I heard my name called, about to open my mouth and outright beg if I had to before the man gave a pained scream and dropped me. I staggered backwards, looking up in confusion and sighing in relief as I saw John, standing next to the man with a hand clenched tightly around his now likely broken wrist before throwing him down the hall with ease as she turned to me._

"_Go win it for the team…I'll deal with the git...tell Menda I found a blockhead…" I blinked but nodded and bolted out to the stadium and up on the steps just before the announcer declared the match a forfeit, turning and giving a wide grin and thumbs up to my obviously worried friends before making a quick signal to Menda who stood and walked over. I ignored the protests from the announcer and bent down, passing on John's message and she nodded, saying nothing and just turning, calmly walking back to the hallway I'd just run from and I stood, turning to face my opponent._

_FLASHBACK – KAI_

_Once the matches for our teams were well underway I stood, following Menda's trail back into the hallway, frowning as I looked about and saw no one, eyes widening a little as I saw a few blood drops on the floor and ran down the rest of the hall, ears pricked for any small sound. As I rounded the corner to a back entrance I saw that the door was open and flooding in light, and on approach I saw Menda just the other side, leaning against the brickwork, a small orb of light in her hand, looking closer I saw it reflect the roof many floors above us where I could see John and a strange man fighting. It was odd to see someone actually match up against her though that wasn't quite accurate. She was still thrashing him but he actually seemed to be able to take it and had dealt a few blows himself judging by the large amounts of cuts and bruises that littered any uncovered skin she had. The left lens of her glasses was broken and her lip was bleeding though the other man's condition was not much better. It then occurred to me how serious the situation must be if John was actually inflicting intentional damage. Yes she was strong but so pacifistic and gentle, but the look on her face now read murder and hatred. Was this a member of the bio-vault team perhaps? Somehow I doubted she'd go to these lengths to get an ex off her back._

_I looked at Menda who had yet to acknowledge me but I knew she knew I was there: the fight was evidently important. After a while it became apparent that what I was watching was indeed a battle to the death, something John herself didn't seem to want to admit as I counted endless opportunities for her to strike down her foe and she instead took a quick jab in a more minor area just trying to scare the other away. He, however, took no such mercy. I understood she hated violence and most sincerely didn't want to hurt anyone. I also understood that she had honour and therefore understood why she wouldn't just snap him in half like I knew she so easily could. But I didn't understand why she was allowing it to go on, putting her life in danger when so many people depended on her. That man was going to kill her but she still refused to really fight back. I noted the tension in the girl next to me and sighed as I realised I was right. Menda was thinking the same thing as me which meant there was no hidden reason, no tricks up John's sleeve…everything was playing out exactly as I saw it._

_Unable to take much more I turned; about to run up to the roof and help her myself when Menda's hand caught my wrist, pulling me back._

"_Let's go" she muttered softly, drawing me close._

"_Go!? John's hurt! She needs help! I thought you said you'd promised to watch over them!" She said nothing though I noted her height was slowly increasing or rather…yes. A quick glance confirmed it that her feet were leaving the floor and she began riding upwards, still holding me tightly though I did not find myself being dragged. Instead I found that my feet too were leaving the ground and I was levitating equally beside her. It seemed that as long as Menda was around _anything_ could and would defy gravity. Upon reaching the top Menda set me down and without even blinking I just flew at John's assailant, throwing him off from what could have been a very near fatal blow to John's skull, kicking him back and engaging him in a new fight. I found it to be a mistake very quickly as the blows connected with my body painfully and I winced. Thankfully I'd sparred off against John a few times and the strength behind her fists was far greater but it didn't lessen the pain any._

_John soon rejoined the fray after taking a few moments to recover and I must say I appreciated it. I could already feel the bruises starting to gather under my skin and on my muscles, my bones aching from the harsh blows. Voltaire really was going all out this time. John was about to land a winning blow but as far as I know it never landed…but I never saw what actually happened and felt only the heavy blow to the back of the head._

_FLASHBACK – JOHN_

_I jumped back from my blow, growling softly as I saw Kai's frame fall limp and he was held up by the throat, my chest tightening over. I was more than aware Menda was stood at the side watching and was more than aware she was watching how the training panned in action. It was tougher than it should be. I know I should have just kept fighting, that I should worry more about the greater good than the welfare of just one teen but I just couldn't. This was another human being not dissimilar from me and not to mention this was a _friend. _ I'd become so close to all of them over the past couple of months and I just couldn't bare it. It wasn't just having to risk Kai, it was everything that followed too and I knew we hadn't trained for that. Going back to the other's telling them that we sacrificed their captain when we could have saved him. The looks on their faces, the hatred, being turned away from the group and the careful training and strategy falling to pieces; we hadn't been trained for that. I needed to find a way between this…another way, there had to be one._

_After a few moments I shut my eyes but the other still didn't move: he was as trapped as I was. There was no guarantee to him that I wouldn't still pummel him if he moved and I was still between him and his exit. He couldn't run. Right now, here, this position was the only thing that gave him a teetering advantage and that all still depended on my reaction to the situation. I needed to plan this carefully; a negotiation was out of the question given the motivation behind it all. He wanted us dead and if he returned to Voltaire having chosen to fail in favour of his own life he would be killed anyway. Sure I had always hated him and he was a blockhead but he was still just another helpless slave to the ever present and powerful hand of that bastard. It took a while but I opened my eyes, noting that Kai was stirring vaguely and I exhaled for a long period of time to calm myself. I had reached my decision…sort of. Making sure the other wasn't looking my eyes flickered to Menda who still hovered by one of the vents, watching in cold silence, arms folded and face dead set. I needed her for this and I so sincerely hoped she'd figured it out by now. I turned my gazed back to the other two, my own face having adopted a cold and dead expression of its own and my opponent seemed to notice that, for he instinctively moved Kai in front of him as a shield. I laughed. That wasn't going to stop me._

_I relaxed myself and my vision focused straight ahead as I began moving backwards and I could detect in the air his smirk, thinking he'd won though he still didn't move. I was still in his way. I was still a threat. I kept walking back, faster and faster, my surroundings making themselves known to me as I built a picture of the roof in my mind, feeling the surge of power enter my blood and circulate my body as soon I was nearly running backwards, stopping just before I staggered over the edge of the stairwell and my feet slid back to just over the edge as my torso lurched forwards and I began running back at him. I couldn't see anything, nothing had moved since I'd started backing off, all I could do was hold the image of how things had been in my head when my vision had been cut off and hope for the best. He was a blockhead after all so he probably wouldn't catch on until the last second and by then he was too slow and it would be too late to move and sure enough as I got closer to the 'imaginary' target I felt his smirk vanish from the air and then I felt my body connect, heard a yelp of pain from Kai and subsequently my opponent. The sound pierced my heart but I didn't stop, I couldn't stop and just kept landed punch after punch after kick after kick, knowing that if I stopped or tried to aim for the edge of the target I couldn't see in order to miss Kai I'd give too much of an opening and he could attack but without my sight I'd definitely be a goner. If I got in trouble for my own stupidity and softness I could count on Menda not getting involved. _

_I hadn't been paying attention. Shit. I was too busy dwelling on the consequences of failure. Where was I? A quick calculation of the amount of blows and the power behind them tied with the calculated distance between my opponent and the edge of the roof when I had started…almost there. I could feel there wind hitting me harder now, pushing me back but I didn't stop, my blows increasing in strength as the panic in the other's blood rose. I could hear his feet scuffling at the edge now, occasionally slipping and I moved in for the last blow, hearing the wind whistle around them as they fell and falling to my knees and then over the edge, my entire body paralysed. Menda would save Kai; he was necessary to the rest of the plans, she needed him. I had served my purpose now and she still had Fudd and he was smarted than me anyway. She had all she needed and I had served my usefulness. I didn't mind though. I knew it would be this way if it ever came to the crunch and it was this sheer cold and calculating woman who refused to let emotion stand in the way of her goal that had given me the confidence and trust in what I was doing. Although she taught and held the same principal as Voltaire there was somehow something different about it; she was somehow different._

_Well I didn't have anything to do now. I just shut my currently blind eyes and waited, letting my thoughts drift away from my now completed mission and back to the happy innocent life I used to lead, back to my heart, back to the things I took pleasure in in life. It felt good really. This bout of freedom of mind I could experience before death. Like a well earned reward. I'd had my laughs with the girls and Fudd and with Fudd I'd been able to confide so much. Yes I was close to them, I wasn't a little sourpuss like Menda or Kai but at the end of the day I hadn't been much different. Yes I loved my friends and I treasured them but it was still all business for me wasn't it? Menda had respected me for that. She had said it straight and flat out. It's why she came to find me after I left. I was the only one who knew her from the bio-vault and honestly I had expected her to just take the information I had and go. I didn't expect for her to ask us to join…hadn't expected her to name me secondary captain for the many times she wasn't around over _Lace_, a member just as cold and sour as Menda. I suppose I achieved something that Kai, Menda, Lace…something none of them could. I could keep my emotions, be informed of how I felt, respond to the world outside but at the flick of a switch I could shut it all off. I didn't let my emotions and desires rule everything I did, and nor did I hurt those who tried to befriend me by needlessly turning them away. I had developed the proper balance in order to always concentrate fully on the task at hand. Defeat Voltaire. For that I had always been business first and behind all the smiles and the slacking off on occasion I was always calculating the fill to some hole n a plan or strategy, writing lines of code in my head. I just…never seemed to switch off. For four years my brain was always active, always thinking and now…I had freedom. I could currently think freely. My dying thoughts were not of the others and whether or not they would miss me. I won't undermine myself that way; they care and I know it. They'll miss me…but they'll move on and I hope they do. I won't think of whether or not they'll finally defeat Voltaire. Of course they'll win; Menda is never wrong after all. Actually if I'm not thinking these things I already have the answer to what am I thinking about? I finally earned my freedom of thought and I have no idea what to do with it. There's only a few seconds before I hit the ground. I can feel it rushing closer. I'm determined; I'll have at least _one _personal thought before it comes._

_'Kenny.' _

_There was no pain. Just warmth. Death isn't so bad._

**Gliitch: **I _was_ going to do the whole tournament in this chapter but I came up with a better solution to the problem…sort of and though I _could_ keep writing I think it's so much more awesome to put a cliff hanger here.

**Megsy:** Great…a cliff hanger…that we aren't going to see the conclusion to for another two years.

**Gliitch:** Actually I'm still writing…could be up in as little as a day…

**Tala:** I called O.R.M.Y. to send her a muse…they must have really gone all out…

**Megsy: **Seems that way…oh you never did the disclaimer…

**Tala: **You'd think they'd get it after fifteen disclaimers that Gliitch doesn't own Beyblade…

**Gliitch: **Well you know how thick lawyers are…


	17. Frequent Flyer Miles

**Gliitch: **Yo! I'm back again! Still writing! Maybe once I run out of inspiration here I might update…SOMETHING ELSE! Gasp! I wonder how many of you even remember that I have other fics.

**Megsy: **Yeah there are five…four for Beyblade…one for xxxHoLic…one for Yu-Gi-Oh GX…which is full of fluff…

**Tala:** Fluff? Aw come on Gliitch I used to respect you…

**Gliitch:** It used to be fluff…it won't be soon enough…I have evolved and so has Miller…

**Tala:** Now that's more like it!

**Megsy:** (Nod)

**Gliitch: **Well right now it's too soon for reviews since it's only been an hour since I posted up so uh…Tala!

**Tala: **Eh?

**Gliitch: ** Disclaimer.

**Tala: **Gliitch doesn't own Beyblade yatta…yatta.

**Gliitch: **Alright! O.R.M.Y. don't fail me now!

**Tala: **Gliitch doesn't own 9th Elsewhere either…

**Help Like You**

Chapter 17: Frequent Flyer Miles

_FLASHBACK – KAI_

_The next thing I remember…well I don't know. Everything seemed to phase in and out. John seemed to be thinking about something the first time. Black. Oh she'd made a decision…that look in her eyes is like death. It's strange to see her with it…is she going to kill him now? Actually this sort of look is more like 'I'm going to kill everything between me and that person as well as that person.' Black. She's looking elsewhere. Menda? I see her. She definitely has a plan now. If Menda's willing to help which I doubt…she'll help John since she promised but she doesn't need me. John is vital. Between her and that person is where I've just been moved; the joys of playing a human shield. She's laughing. I respect that she's holding onto her resolve and not giving up for the sake of emotions but laughing is a little much isn't it? Though I suppose she's going to do something drastic now so she's probably driven herself to temporary insanity. So yeah this probably is all _really_ funny to her. Black. She's running at us now. This guy is scared. I can feel it in the grip on my throat. There's a roof behind us. Should be fun. Those eyes. They're still set but something's wrong now. Where's the focus? Black. _

_Holy shit that's painful. She collided. That's snapped me awake. She's just staring. I get it now. She can't see. I can hear myself yelling out in pain. She looks hurt and not just physically. This really is hard for her. I've dealt with worse. I should shut up now and stop her worrying. If I keep acting like such a child she might not finish this. I can feel the wind behind me; we're getting closer. I can hear him yelling in pain and fear and I must say it's such a sweet sound. So fresh. I remember being made to lurch backwards, falling through the air that cut at my injured flesh. At least he wasn't holding me still. I could face my death with dignity. Wait. That's John up there. Is she falling too? Yeah it seems like it. I remember thinking that that was probably why she'd looked to Menda for help. Menda…I could remember seeing her at the top, watching her team mate fall to her death. Watching her opponent fall to his. Watching me fall to me. Just…watching. Not doing anything. Why wasn't she doing anything!? Why wasn't she helping John!? How could she just stand and watch!? I knew she was cold, I knew many people were but to be _this_ heartless surely made her no better than Voltaire?!_

_I could feel the blood in body start to boil at the thoughts coursing through me and my heart pumped faster. It was then I heard it. A high pitched siren screech somewhere indistinguishable…above? Below? No it was from somewhere within me. A fire burning and raging and suddenly I just knew. Click. In an explosion of fire and light I found myself soaring upwards again, past John, past the roof and flying over head, unsteady and gripping into the hot scarlet feathers that tickled under my hand like flames but they did not burn and I smiled to myself, nuzzling into the warm feathery down before straightening up and holding for dear life, trying to work out how the steering on this new mode of transport worked. The wind clawed at my face and growled fiercely in my ears and I pulled my scarf up to protect myself, bowing my head to stop the moisture being torn from my eyes, scanning the world below as I flew about shakily, eyes honing in on John as she fell. My heart stopped. She was smiling. Her face in itself was dead, her body unresponsive but I could read it in the way that people tend to read others…the way Menda's team read her emotion and the way my team read mine I read it. She was smiling now. It made me shudder, someone so at terms with their own fate like that. Without noticing I was diving straight for her, the wind piercing my wounds and traumatising my injured body but I kept diving, driven by the need to save John I suppose._

_Dranzer levelled out as we near the ground and I briefly recall marvelling at the obliviousness of the people below who didn't seem to notice at all the fantastic sight just above them and with my hands shaking and trembling in what I admit to be fear I removed them from their firm holds in the phoenix down. I stood then and spread my arms, pulling John in from the air and collapsing with her in the safe haven between the wings of the red phoenix, laughing to myself softly with pride and relief as she pulled swiftly out of the dive and rode the wind back up to the roof. Looking down I saw the man fall to his…near-death. Watching as he slowed just before hitting the ground and just laying simply on the concrete for a few moments before looking back up to the top of the stadium. Following his gaze I saw Menda, Papilio and the tell tale lights floating around her and I seethed. She'd _saved_ him! For all that had happened, all that had _nearly_ happened, all that he'd driven us to, all the pain and fear…for all that being emotionless and merciless to Voltaire and his men she'd _saved_ him! I looked back down at the lucky escapee, as he stood, eyes widening in terror as he noted it was indeed Menda staring down at him and he turned and ran as fast as his injuries would allow._

_Dranzer landed gracefully on the roof and in my exhaustion I just rolled off, laying flat on my back and gazing up at the sky as a flurry of garnet feathers crossed my vision as they flew into the sky and burnt into nothing and I smiled to myself, still clutching an unconscious John to my chest as Menda stood over us. The sight of her made me angry all over again but somehow it never surfaced. I never stopped smiling. Maybe I knew then._

_"You didn't do anything."_

_"I didn't need to."_

_"You didn't know that."_

_"I assumed you'd be the first to fully awake your bit beast. I also assumed that a dire situation would be exactly what would spur you to do just that." My smile grew a little as I shut my eyes in helpless acceptance._

_"And you're never wrong, right?"_

_"Right." Menda answered firmly, her voice as monotonous and cold as ever._

_"You saved him though."I opened my eyes and gazed up at her, still smiling. For some reason my brain was currently on a never ending high._

_"If someone absolutely must die then I will not hesitate. At any other time spending a small amount of energy to save a life is a good trade over. I've honed my skills enough. It costs very little for me to use my power. John would be useless to me if her conscience weighed on her though. It was even slightly necessary to save him." I said nothing more. There was no need. "Get up if you can. She needs to get to a hospital soon." I sat up, wincing slightly in pain, my scarf loose around my neck as Menda bent to lift John, sighing softly as she went to the stairwell and began walking down. I walked behind her, feeling dizzy and clutching at the railing but not complaining or falling behind too much. As far as aftermath of a beating went this was pretty alright in comparison to the vault._

_I winced, a loud yelp piercing my hearing and making my head ache more than it already did, looking ahead to see Kenny breaking away from the Blade Breakers and running down the hall John and he yelped again as he saw me. Clearly I looked worse than I felt. Max too began running down, biting his lip as his eyes glistened with worry. He'd spoken to Menda before the match I remember; perhaps he'd also had a confrontation with the man? He must be shaken now he could see what could've happened._

_FLASHBACK – MAX_

_I skidded to a halt in front of Menda, eyes wide and a bit back the stinging of tears. I stared in complete shock at the state of John and stumbled back a few steps. Was this even possible?! She could bring down _buildings _with that monstrous strength of hers so what on earth was it that a single man had over her to make her lose like this? Or win…I don't know what the outcome was and actually…I don't care. She was hurt…badly…I could have run for help I could have told someone that there was a threatening person in the building but no I just assumed that John could take care of it and I could just get on with my match. The match .yes that's all I'd been worried about at the time. Somehow hindsight always puts things into proportion…and always make me look the guilty idiot. Kai too, he'd suffered because of this I could see he was barely standing, now leaning against Autumn who supported him sturdily and he gladly took it. He really was badly hurt then to let is ever strong pride take a hit by accepting help. I jumped as I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Kfrieda looking up at me with wide eyes filled with concern as she offered a comforting smile. I shook my head and just slapped her hand away, turning and running out. I just needed to get away._

_FLASHBACK – MENDA_

_I remember him running out of the stadium. He never came back all the while we waited for the ambulance and he hasn't arrived at the hospital as of yet. Kfrieda is worried for him but Lace is keeping her here. I am not bound by such ties and as such…_

_FLASHBACK ENDED_

Menda sighed softly, taking one last look through the window at John and watching Kenny for a few moments as he typed away on Dizzy, Fudd taking up temporary residence there also. She hadn't woken yet and Menda didn't expect her to anytime soon but they didn't need her to. _She _didn't need her to. Menda turned on her heel, walking briskly past where a tear ridden Kfrieda curled up with Tyson who was constantly reassuring her that Max was fine and just a little in shock, using his close bond and knowledge of the blonde as a key to bargaining with her happiness. Lace, whom nodded at her captain curtly as she passed, sat close by also, backing up Tyson's argument whilst putting in a few scolds that were light hearted and also seemed to bring the girl some comfort. Disappearing down the hall with her long pony tail swishing behind her, Menda sighed as she reached the out patients area, looking around and walking over to the group when she spotted them. The Blade Breakers were crowded around Kai now that he'd officially signed out with nothing more than a minor concussion and a few bad bruises. Nothing internal seemed to be damaged thank heavens and aside from a slight rib fracture that could be helped only by a lack of movement there was to be no lasting damage; aside from, perhaps, a new found fear of an angry John. He sat now with his team and Autumn in the out patients area, waiting eagerly for news on John or to be more precise the wheelchair that Hillary had gone off to find so they could wait for news on Menda's team mate outside her room.

When Menda reached them she towered over them, looking at each of them to inspect their current status. Autumn was doing her best to offer comforts to Ray who, though not as distressed as Kfrieda was still worried for his friend. Kai looked up as he saw her and nodded in greeting, Ray also breaking from Autumn to greet Menda, his voice slightly quieter than normal though he put forward admirable strength of self and Menda sighed.

"John is stable…would you phone Mr Dickenson and see if he'll put in for new glasses? I do have money but since they were broken defending _his_ tournament due to _his_ lack of security I'm sure he won't mind chipping in…" she sighed again, "but you can tell him there's no rush. Even once she's conscious she'll be blind for a while." With that Menda left, heading out the door to the car park where she stood for a while before a motorbike pulled up. The rider got off, stripped to normal clothing revealing himself to be a young handsome man of perhaps African descent and then gave Menda the keys. As the driver tucked his leathers and helmet under his arm Menda got her own set out of the box on the back and changed pulled them on, mounting the bike and speeding off. The male proceeded to wait a while before a taxi arrived into which he climbed and left.

Kai thought nothing of it at first and just climbed into the wheelchair when Hillary returned, only letting the information click about twenty minutes later. Menda…on a bike? Surely she wasn't old enough to have a license? He frowned, turning to Lace who looked up at him expectantly upon sensing his gaze.

"May I help you?"

"Lace…how old is Menda…?" Lace shrugged, before thinking a little.

"Only John really knows the exact age I think if anyone does but I think she's somewhere in her early twenties…" He blinked, stopping short at that as did most others including Autumn and Kfrieda. Menda clearly kept to herself.

"Oh…" Kai muttered, leaning back in his chair and just letting the rest of the conversation wash over him, not particularly caring.

_FLASHBACK – MENDA CONTINUED_

_I am not bound by such ties and as such…he is definitely too much of an important figure for the final crunch._

**Gliitch: **I don't think I'll write much more onthis tonight…if I do you're very lucky people

**Megsy: ** So it's another two years before we see you?

**Gliitch:** Hopefully not…maybe I'll write something for another fic tonight…

**Tala:** Here's hoping…

**Gliitch: **Reviews?


	18. Will the Defendant Please Rise?

**Gliitch: **oh look I'm already back…I haven't gone back and reread any of the other work so you people are just going to have to put up with this crummy plot for now…

**Megsy: **well just finish writing and get on with the story

**Gliitch: **still no reviews but at least a few people have bothered reading…

**Tala: **oh god she's depressed…I'll do the disclaimer and then maybe some malicious writing will cheer her up

**Megsy:** yeah…

**Tala: **She doesn't own Beyblade so go sue someone else

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**Help Like You**

Chapter 18: Will the Defendant Please Rise?

Menda sighed as she rode around the city, searching for the young blonde. By now it was late and the rain was coming down hard in the inky black night, the shine from her headlight bouncing off the water as she skidded around corners and through empty market places. John would have been handy right now; she was always intuitive of people and combining that with her skills of calculation she'd be ticking off a list of places and it was near certain that list wouldn't be very long. Eventually she came to the park where they trained, locking up her bike and running across to the woods, losing her footing a few times on the bridge and bruising her knee, tearing the fabric there a little as she ran, easily moving in between the close branches of the trees, a bright light shining in her hand as soon spreading out around her in order to fully search the area, coming to a halt after an hour to rethink her plans of searching.

It was well gone midnight when she ended her search, looking around as she came across the springs, steadying herself in the humid air by taking a deep breath, removing her suit and gloves to help cool her body. She looked around silently, stopping as she saw through the steam, her target. The young blonde sat quietly, staring at the water moving before him, bubbling and churning though it occasionally stilled for long periods of time, the vapours in the air too halting in their fluid dance in the night. The night was oddly clear for the chilled starts of winter but in that it was indeed colder than ever but the air here was uncomfortably hot now, the body struggling to settle into the contrasting surroundings though there he sat, concentrating hard in nothing more than shorts, the rest of his clothing scattered on the floor by the wall and she hopped up with ease, removing her own shoes and socks and throwing them to the wall, rolling up her trouser legs and sinking her feet into the warm water, ignoring the temperature increase and leaving them there. If he had control of temperature it was evident he had done nothing but practice since he'd run off.

"You can heat it so that it all becomes steam but I won't leave." Menda stated bluntly, the water cooling a little but not much though at least her legs were no longer risking serious burns. "Hn, at least you can still listen. You've done a great deal in such a short space of time…pity it's all a wasted effort…though it might prove useful it would have been better to spend the time learning some real things."

"Shut up." Max murmured miserably, a single bubble escaping the surface of the water. "Shouldn't you be looking after your team?"

"I am looking after my team Max…in case you've forgotten…we're on the same side." The blonde said nothing, keeping his gaze trained down. Menda stood on the rim under the water, walking around to sit closer to the other and sitting just a foot or so away.

"John's pulled through by the way," she murmured, her voice softened more than usually for the sake of the other's sensitivity though it still held an icy edge. It was evident that thoughtfulness and tact was not a gift she offered regularly though Max seemed to disregard it, letting off only a rather Kai like grunt of acknowledgement albeit it must have caught his attention since the water bubble briefly. "It isn't your fault you know…" she noted the heating of the water but continued calmly, "I'm not saying that running off was a courteous decision or that things would have ended differently if you stayed…but neither factor at all pins blame on you. As it is you've spent all this time training and still haven't gotten far so maybe the situation would have ended the same…in addition to your death."

"Trying and dying is better than wondering." His murmur was soft and cracked as the water cooled back to normal temperature…and then continued cooling.

"Oh is that what you believe? I suppose so given the naivety of those you accompany…" her voice rose in pitch, becoming condescending and the cold edge returned; so much for tact. "While the aim was all just fun and games before that philosophy was probably well enough workable, being able to do anything if you try hard enough, all goals are within reach, belief is the key not skill, we can do anything if we have our friend etcetera, etcetera _but_…" she paused here after her list, letting the water temperature adjust to her as the temperature began sinking dangerously low, "…it's different this time. These people _will_ just shoot you in the head given the chance…belief doesn't stop that…friends can't stop that…_you_ can stop that…I don't want to see you dead Maxie…" The temperature of the water was nearly ice now as the boy gripped his knees hard, digging in his nails and trying to calm his heavy breathing.

"Just shut up! Don't want to see me dead?! Why not?! You don't even care that much about your_ real_ team! The only reason you're here is because you need to keep everyone else from feeling worry or guilt ridden that I ran off! To make sure they're still useful!" He was glaring down at the water, shoulders shaking in rage. About to start yelling again he yelped, feeling sheer cold against his back as he was shoved against the stone, one firm hand at the base of his neck pressing along his collar bone to avoid actually strangling him and he gazed up in shock at the woman before him, struggling to pull her hand away but her grip tightened, surprisingly sharp nails cutting into the flesh.

"That's quite enough don't you think? I have no need for self pity party poopers." She stood over him, voice cold and commanding as ever. "You got one thing right. No, I'm not here because I _care_. But don't for a second think I would go around searching for one little brat just so they would be a little bit happier. If anything…I'd lie." Max blinked up at her, tilting his head slowly. "I'd say you'd been either taken by or killed by Voltaire…give them some extra motivation…maybe I'd say you got too scared and ditched you guys to continue leading an easy life…that you didn't want to fight anymore…nothing waiting for you but anger then right?" Max growled, losing his worn patience fast.

"Oh yeah then why _are_ you here?"

"Let's get this straight Maxie I don't give a shit about whom you are what you like or hate or what motivates you so long as you _are_ motivated and that you're still calculable in the plan because you know what? The one I care about is that bloody reptile of yours." Max's eyes widened as his gaze flitted down to his hand, gazing at his blade absent-mindedly.

"Draciel?" He frowned, gazing back at her, "you can't have him!" Her hand left his chest and rose to slap him simply and at a short distance. It was an action that spoke loud and clear. There was no need to overdramatise by raising her hand high or pushing the slap beyond his face. Just that simple action was enough to say: 'shut the fuck up.'

"I wouldn't want a pathetic weakling like that believe me…" she hissed, continuing before the other could contradict her, "Papilio would have the battle over in less than a second but Draciel…" she smiled wryly here, "_Draciel…_is_…special_!" Max gazed up at her, eyes wide in confusion and curiosity.

"Tyson's stronger than me…Kai too…probably Ray and all of your team almost definitely…so how on earth is he special?"

She laughed distantly, a cold detached and unnatural life.

"Not on this Earth Maxie that's the point. We're messing with powers here way beyond Earth and nature…beyond heaven and hell…we're messing with blank space Maxie…a whole realm of unwritten destiny where anything is possible and we have control over it." She stood back from the other, pulling out a small pocket knife, too small to really do serious damage but it could definitely put someone's eye out and he could tell she kept it sharp. Probably for slitting throats. Max watching as she threw it at length over the area and it halted in the air high up and she rose herself to its level, out of reach of the small boy as it slowly began progressing closer. "You know…since you're just not willing anymore anyway…there's no way I can achieve my goal…so I don't really have a need to live…I'll see you around…" The knife progressed faster and faster through the air before her, ready to pierce her waiting throat as she tilted her head up to clear the way and Max's eyes widened. What was she doing?! What was she thinking?! Surely she wasn't serious?! He faltered then as he remembered Autumn's words oh so long ago and knew his wishful thinking had to end. Menda was _always_ deadly serious. More literal at some times than others it seemed. He thought desperately for a way to save her, going to the water and desperately large droplets flew at the knife, trying to change its course but to no avail and so he stood in the water as it gathered around him at high speed, slowly but just about lifting him. He struggled not to pass out for the energy it took, becoming dizzy, vision blackening slightly but he eventually was able to reach her hand, grabbing it and trying to drag her down but she remained sturdy and he whimpered as ideas left him, the water dissipating beneath him and he yelped as once more he was left to hang by another of these strange girls. He remembered briefly Kfrieda on that day and bit his lip. She loved Menda so much no matter how cold the woman was. He couldn't let her go through this. In determination he swung his legs around the other, climbing up her body like an awkwardly shaped rope, still trying to shake her from her resolve, watching that ever approaching knife, yelping as it suddenly sped up.

Five feet now and getting faster. Four feet…why couldn't he think of anything?! Three feet and he was still just powerlessly hanging from her. Two feet and he had a resolve, shifting himself between her and the course of the knife, holding his hands up to shield himself as he saw it a foot away. _Click_. He opened his eyes after a few seconds to see the unmoving knife before him, somewhere vaguely noting he wasn't hold Menda but somehow still had a source of levitation, half feeling her hands on his shoulders firmly. She'd changed her mind thank the lord. Wait no. That wasn't right. The knife was still moving but…it wasn't going anywhere. Shaking as it tried to push passed some unseen force field.

"Like I said Maxie. No one but you is going to stop a speeding bullet aimed at your head." Her lips were close to his ear as she spoke and then slowly lowered them to the wet stone below, holding out her hand for the knife to sink into slowly and carefully. "You did make one mistake this time. Just because we have power…we aren't invincible and you should have thought on it longer. At the end of the day though the only way you could have had a better outcome was if you _hadn't_ just expected her to be alright. You did right by going to the match and avoiding an untimely demise but in the end what made it bad for you was that you expected her to come back barely touched. We're still mortal Max and no amount of power or bit beast can change that. It's all humans can do to just prolong the inevitable and make life more comfortable until that day comes." She finally moved from behind him, the boy just standing there shell shocked at the events that had just taken place, his eyes following her as she sat down, finally washing the graze on her knee and he gulped a little. Even Menda…someone so strong and seemingly perfect was fallible. Vulnerable like anyone. "Even though you feel regret because of your incorrect expectations…maybe this is even better than that. When John finally fully recovers we're back to even setting…exactly as we were before the match. Or we would be if you had kept your cool. Because you ran off you're more powerful than ever now and you've uncovered Draciel's most useful feature…or one of many…" She stood and went to the wall. "The end of it here is that…today you were weak…you were unable to help at all and someone important suffered for it greatly. Tomorrow when the fight resumes, because of today's weakness you'll be that much stronger. This one little setback has given you strong hands. Hands used to hold tightly to the people important to you, the ones motivating you to fight and now those hands can protect also. Regretting before you've even done something is something that I find annoying…many do…but my biggest pet peeve is people who regret _after_ the fact without fully realising the situation…there's nothing to regret here at all."

She hopping down and moved to the wall, starting to redress. "Come on…you'll get ill like that…let's get back to the dojo; visiting hours will be over by now." Max nodded and hurriedly got dressed, running after the woman who was quickly vanishing from sight, settling on her bike by the time he caught up, now fully clad in leathers, putting on her helmet. "You can look after yourself if you come off right?" Max blinked, nodding uncertainly and just climbing on the back, listening carefully to her instruction on riding, pressing close to her back as they sped off to the dojo.

The second they entered, after Menda and pulled off her leathers there was a high squeal as Kfrieda bounded at the boy, hugging him tightly and crying tears of sweet relief into his neck, clinging tightly to the back of his shirt with her arms flung around his frame and after registering the initial shock he sighed calmly and smiled in a loving brotherly way, slowly closing his arms around her small upper frame and firmly holding her there, twisting and rocking his body from side to side n a soothing manner, slowly walking her over to where the others sat watching in silence to allow the girl to better calm and he sat where Tyson stood up to allow him room, putting Kfrieda in her original seat which had been next to the blunette and sat there holding her until the diminutive blader settled, Kai then walking over to stand above him arms folded and he calmly braced himself for the lecture to come.

"Max…" his captain's voice was stern and cold, his own lost, still in shock from the events of the evening so he just nodded to show he was listening, lowering his head to Kfrieda and reaching up to brush the tears around her cheek back away from her skin, onto his own hand as the other spoke, "with everything that's happened running off like that is really dangerous…don't do it again." With that he turned, leaving the room, scarf swishing behind him. That was it? No verbal lashing? No yelling or screaming? No long lecture? No _punishment_? He sat there bluntly, looking down at the girl in his arms who sat soundlessly, her bright blue eyes dulled to a wistful grey, gazing at the wall ahead as she rested on his chest; fisting his shirt tightly as if afraid he'd vanish if he didn't. Slowly he dared raise his gaze to her other side where Ray sat hunched over, hands clasped loosely between his parted knees and head hung to face the floor solemnly, Autumn standing just by him next to the arm of the sofa, one hand casually brushing it at the finger tips as the other reached over and touched the shoulder of the Chinese blader, and watching him with bright eyes, that were oddly lit somehow. His attention was drawn away by movement close by and he looked up to his right to see Tyson looming over him slightly, in much the same position in relation to Max as Autumn was to Ray, though he was too tall to use the arm of the sofa as a vague support.

It was only now that Max noted that the lights were out and the television was off, the lights outside on the street also gone. It must have been a power cut that he hadn't noticed. It didn't matter; the moon was bright enough to just about see the expression in Tyson's shaded face even though it shone from behind. He gazed down at the blonde steadily, lips drawn into a tight line and brown furrowed straight instead of down. Not anger but…something akin to disappointment. Here Max frowned and withdrew a little, frowning down at his knees in thought before looking back at Kfrieda then allowing his gaze to once more slide around the room. Menda was gone. No surprise there she'd already had her chance to have a go at him and it wasn't like he expected her to defend him, not that she ever stuck around anyway. But for the first time he also noted Kenny and Lace were also not in sight and he just looked down at Kfrieda again. As he gently stroked her hair, marvelling a little at the perfect ringlets it formed into when her hair ties were removed he caught sight of the back of his hand where a scald was visible. He'd been training and made the water blow up at him a little, although he had put it in cold water straight away he got the feeling it would scar anyway but no matter, at least it wasn't bothering him. It occurred to him then that if he played his cards right, it could be the last scar he ever received; it finally sunk in what it was he had the power to _do_. He opened his mouth to joyfully start telling the others and then stopped. They had no clue he could do what he could. They didn't know what Menda had in store for him. Probably all this time they'd been at the hospital, worrying over John and how well she was doing, all the while knowing that he was out in the world alone. He was terrified at that time having seen just what they were up against and it had only occurred to him to run. Run and become strong but…of course they were just as frightened as him. They'd seen John too, they'd _seen_ what could happen; he'd chosen that time to run away. The thoughts that must have been going through their heads. The _worry_. He bit his lip, looking down, all thoughts of his new found power gone as he shut his eyes; he didn't want to face the shame.

"I'm sorry…I just…there's no decent explanation…I just didn't think…I didn't want to…" There was silence for a little before he felt damp against his neck as Kfrieda nuzzled into him with her tearstained face and hugged him tightly and he just hugged back on second nature, bringing her as close as he physically could.

He felt a strong hand pat him on the shoulder as Tyson beamed down at him, sitting on the arm of the chair.

"Hey bud don't mention it…you just had us a nadge worried that's all!" Ray sighed lightly and pulled his back straight heavily, shutting his eyes and letting slip a soft smile as he leant back into the cushions.

"At least _you_ came back unharmed…which is more than I can say…" he rubbed the back of his head, laughing sheepishly as Autumn giggled with delight, the tense atmosphere lifting as Ray sighed, "which reminds me _I_ never apologised for the trouble I put you guys through didn't actually occur to me how bad it was until Maxie ran off so sorry I put you through that…I'll ring next time I stop to beat up some blockheads…" Tyson laughed and nodded as Max leant back happily, still cradling Kfrieda in one arm.

"I think it's about time we went to bed…been a long, _long_ day." The other's nodded and Max stood, helping Tyson to set out the beds before looking around. "Hey where's Hillary? And Kenny and Lace?" The others exchanged glance and he frowned as Ray sighed.

"Kenny's real depressed right now so they're up in Ty's bedroom; not sure what they're doing though but just…don't go in there…" Max tilted his head and looked at the other questioningly, taken aback and eyes widening as he gestured to what looked liked claw marks on his left cheek.

"Lace _will_ kill you…" he sighed and shook his head, starting to lay out his own bed.

Menda sighed as she hopped down from the roof, landing next to the porch and stood on the ground, looking up at Kai who had resigned to sitting on the enclosing fence of the veranda, having given up on climbing to the top of the dojo due to his ribs, so exhausted had he been after first using Dranzer that he honestly didn't think his body would take it again in one day though he did his hardest not to let that on, despite that he knew that Menda saw right through him as she did everyone. She sighed softly and watching him.

"You did well today Kai…I'm proud of you." Kai stopped at that, eyes wide as he just gazed dumbly down at her. He knew his team regarded him highly; he knew that many people did actually. Those words though…he couldn't recall anyone ever actually saying them to him…it felt odd this swelling feeling inside his chest as he just continued to gaze down at her. "I'm surprised you're still walking about after all of that, I wasn't able to move for three days after my first summon but then again you always were a tough kid yeah?" Kai nodded, passing off her references to his childhood casually. It was no surprise now that many of the girls had either been _in_ bio vault or just scarred by it so probably she was just one of those many faces he'd forgotten along the way. She huffed, jumping up and helping him down. "Though tough kid or not you should rest, pluck up for tomorrow." That caught his attention.

"Tomorrow?"

"Training…broken ribs excuse nothing Hiwatari you should know that by now." He blinked but nodded, leaning against her to balance and once steady, slowly heading indoors, the others surprised to see him but nevertheless Ray hurried to set out his bed also, helping lay down, looking about and sighing as he noted Menda had once more vanished. Well they were safe and sound at least and as he climbed into his covers he found himself offering a small pray of thanks to whatever god out there had taken mercy on them.

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**Gliitch: **well I finally did it! No idea about the next bit of the story though so let's put this aside an~d…do one of my OTHER fanfics! Yay!

**Megsy: **sufficiently cheery now?

**Gliitch: **well there was about a month in between the beginning and end of this chapter for me so…yeah because it's my birthday tomorrow!! ^_^ YAY! 17!!

**Tala: **oh god…well at least she's cheered up…maybe she won't torture the characters as much…

**Megsy:** you kidding? This just increases the imaginative flow so she can come up with new ways of torturing people!

**Tala:** oh god…

**Gliitch:** please review!


	19. Hate is a Strong Word

**Gliitch:** hey look at that I'm back again…shocking…really I didn't realise it had been so long O_O

**Megsy:** *fainted*

**Tala:** I don't think you comprehend the full truth of those words…on with the story…

**Gliitch:** hmm no one reviewed yet…never mind on we go!

**Tala:** Gliitch doesn't own Beyblade so take your lawsuit somewhere else

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**Help Like You**

Chapter 19: Hate is a Strong Word

"Kenny?" Max murmured uncertainly as his trembling hands pressed against the wood of the door a little, allowing his downsized body into the gap between door and frame. His gaze swept the for once tidy room, sucking on his lip as his eyes fell upon Kenny whom was currently nothing more than a shrivelled away, dull, dark-likened creature in the corner of the room by the bed, hunched over his laptop and typing avidly at Dizzi and ignoring the worried chides from the two bit beasts residing in his computer to rest a little or at least stop typing for a few minutes or so. Littering the floor around him were countless coffee stained mugs, another by his leg having probably long gone cold. As of current, Lace lay sleeping, her head pillowed in Hillary's lap and though the brunette was also weary she kept a vigilant watch over her friend; occasionally she offered support to the arguments of Fudd and Dizzi however it was evident now that, contrary to popular belief, our Hillary was in fact human and did not run off a 'however many volts' plug socket. She was tired. Oh so tired. Two weeks they had been up here. In this room. The two girls emerged only to bring more coffee to Kenny. If he would not sleep they would at least help keep him alert enough to finish what he was doing, whatever it was. Maybe then he would sleep.

Two weeks. So much had happened. For one thing the tournament had since been cancelled. In the meantime Mr Dickinson had inquired about the happenings of that day, Tyson's grandfather playing a significant role in the confession of the teens, demanding an explanation for the increasing number of youths being housed in his dojo in addition to their diminishing health. At first fury and disappointment had set in, lectures about telling this sort of thing to the police and leaving it to adults and the story seemed to spotlight Menda eventually. _As an adult you should have more responsibility!_ That's what they had been saying, promptly brought to an end when several glasses had risen from the table and smashed into the ceiling at high speed. She hadn't even looked up from her contemplative state her words simple and short.

"Indeed, the police have done a wonderful job so far." That had settled the argument rather quickly and for the safety of the bladers and the people who would be going to see the tournament it was cancelled. After the last catastrophe taking risks was not an option. Kai seemed to be recovering well enough, surprisingly fast in fact and Max wasn't entirely sure it had nothing to do with Autumn tailing his every move with the ghost of her bit-beast behind her. He supposed it was true that unicorns were creatures of healing. He sighed softly. The training also held changes now. He was now paired with Lace, no longer trying to harness his elemental power with Draciel; no longer were the basics going to help them. Lace's specialisations in attack and damage meant that she was in charge of Kai and Max now, able to assault Max to enhance his protection and teach Kai how not to implode. As it was he was split between two trainers, Menda being the only other one even close to teaching him about flight. In fact, Kai seemed to be spending a lot of time with most of them. Only Kfrieda and of course John had no need to approach. Ah. Kfrieda. She too had been training hard; agility with Rei and Tyson. It would be Rei's strength and Tyson's protection as his skills would leave him vulnerable in the field. Max didn't actually know what Tyson was able to do. Or Rei. Kfrieda was excitable and a hard worker and he had rarely seen any of the three.

It had been one week ago that Kenny had become so dangerously on edge. Lace had resigned to helping Hilary and now Max and Kai trained together, Max able to protect himself from the attack Kai gave. They worked well together. It had been one or two days of initial shock when they returned home; no sleep. Then a day of no movement, probably non-restful sleep. Then he had actually seemed alright until a week ago, helping with the analysis and training. Then one morning he had simply failed to come down, venturing upstairs had found him tapping incessantly at his laptop and not stopping. What he was doing was anybody's guess. Even the computer beasts themselves didn't seem to know.

Back to the now, Max venture further into the room, looking at the dishevelled mess and sighing quietly, taking a seat cautiously on the foot of the bed, watching them in the corner. "Uh…Kenny…what you up to?" He had wanted to ask if he was okay but that really seemed like a dumb question. The other didn't answer. "Look.…Kenny…we got a call from the doctor…John's showing more brain activity…looks like she's waking up at some point soon…just…thought you should know…" He trailed off as the other still ignored him, standing to leave, an icicle stabbing down his spine as he opened the door to slip out.

"Max…" Silence. There was total silence. No tapping of the keys, no chiding and not even the whirring of the computer fan. Those were his first words in a week. So quiet and so easy to miss but it had been there. They sounded slurred, swollen almost, having nothing but the bitter taste of coffee on his tongue, probably scalded from drinking it fresh and burning. It was breathy too, the muscle wastage of not using his vocal cords having worn out his voice a little. Oh but he _had _spoken and somehow the joy made Max's blood run cold as his nails dug into the hard wood. "Thank you…" Max only nodded and didn't turn round, escaping as fast as he could. He should have been overjoyed he knew but he couldn't even turn to look at the other. He didn't have to question. He knew already what had struck him most. The room was depressing yes, the aura in the air hanging over his friend. He'd heard Kenny scared, depressed, been there and seen him like that but…he let out a soft sigh, trying to get rid of it. Seen him angry too…hopeless…even ruthless and cold…which he could be in his own strict way. Never, had he heard such hatred in the voice of that boy.

An emotion he didn't think Kenny was capable of. The chief, _their_ chief; was it hatred toward him? He didn't want to think about that, he really didn't it was almost too sad to bear. Actually, he didn't want to think about it at all but oh god he couldn't get it out of his head. He needed someone and his head began cycling quietly. Anyone telling him it was nothing to worry about was out of the question. This was huge and someone _needed_ to worry. He just didn't want it to be him. Well that sounded callous no matter how he thought about it. Kai would worry in his own way but he'd also just let it be…maybe. He was so unpredictable was Kai. Kai had done similar things in the past though, as had Tyson; two peas in a pod much. Their reactions would likely be to let him do as he felt he needed to; to let him sort out his own head. Actually that would be most anyone's reaction…everyone's reaction. He supposed it didn't matter if it was directed at him and not them…one of those 'had to be there' events. What more could he do anyway? With that final thought he resigned himself to downstairs, flopping into a chair and glancing up as Kai entered.

"No training Kai, not now." He was weary but he kept his voice from wavering, the other having had him practicing at every opportunity so that he might harness his own skills. He was shocked then, when the other sat down.

"You talked to Kenny." He nodded quietly. It was not a question but he nodded anyway. "Well I won't ask…"

"He hates me…" Kai sighed.

"But you're gonna tell me anyway…look I'm sure you aren't the one he hates…he thanked you didn't he?" Max frowned at him at he raised an eyebrow. "Eavesdropping. Either way I'm not all that surprised."

"Not surprised?" Kai sighed. "I know…paints the perfect picture of innocent bystander but…think about it…isn't he probably the harshest out of all of us? He trusts people less than I do…throws bigger hissy fits than Tyson…" Max snorted and he added, "bigger…not louder…you gotta admit you'd prefer a tantrum to the cold shoulder…which he's a damn master at…if Dizzi weren't in his laptop and he was part of this…this 'training'…then I'd honestly be scared."

"Didn't know you knew the 's' word." He leant back, surveying the blonde at the comment then smirking.

"There's an awful lot you don't know…" Max sighed and nodded, leaning on his hand.

"So who surprised _you_ the most then?" Kai looked at him slowly, lips pursing. "Oh come on! I'd like to know who you think is less likely to turn to homicide than _Kenny_."

Silence and then he spoke.

"Tyson." Max blinked, looking at the other dumbly.

"Eh wha-?" Kai sighed and leant back, shutting his eyes and folding his arms.

"You heard." Noting Kenny's look of disbelief he leant forward on his arms and explained. "It's been made clear to us…_very_ clear to us what this is going to come down to. Them or us. No tournaments and trophies, no defending honour…hell…even fighting with honour is out of the question now. It's not gonna be about the beybattles or the game…this is _past_ Beyblade…doesn't matter if we walk in and challenge them to a battle, if they have a gun they'll just shoot. End of story. They're done with politics and they're out to do this the brutal. Hard. Way. Our mission isn't gonna be to stop Voltaire or to capture him or anything of the above. It's going to come down to one of us plunging a stake into his heart." Max tried not to laugh at that; a pitiful waste of Kai's first ever joke. "That's why I'm surprised. Tyson is loyal. Goddamn loyal. He protects his friends and does what's right. At the end of the day though. He'll look for even ground on every conflict. It's never 'take down the enemy at all costs.' It's always 'take down the enemy until I have enough speech room to negotiate.' When he does have to beat someone down he mends things pretty damn quick. In truth, regardless of everything, the subtle _truth_ is that Tyson isn't a fighter. I do mean subtle now…but it is there. Which is why I'm honestly surprised that he'd take part in this." Max nodded then as the information slowly began to process, all those years of friendship flooding back to him as everything Kai said fell into place.

"Maybe…he just liked the idea of being able to wield Dragoon's power?"

"I thought so too but I watched him train just yesterday and…well let's just say I've seen that look on his face before and it's not the 'opportunity's knocking' bell ringing in his head. I thought that maybe he had started training seriously because he had started and now he realised how serious it was didn't know how to stop but…like I said…after watching him train there's no doubt he's in this for the long haul." Max nodded and sighed.

It was odd to sit and talk about this, to think about it. Often he tried to ignore the matter at hand, the full truth of what was going to happen eventually. Now too nervous to be around Mr Granger or Dickinson…they knew something bad was going to go down but on Menda's advice would not inquire. She said each child would return safely and thus, with persuasion from the others on that little 'always right' theory they were left to their own devices. He wondered now if he would be able to handle it. What if he couldn't protect himself in time? If he was caught by surprise? What if he had to take someone's life…? The thought made his ribcage constrict horribly and he promptly got up to down a glass of water before he threw up. Kai seemed to know what he was thinking and the grimace on his face told him that he wasn't looking forward to this either.

"Kai have you ever…" he trailed off and the other shook his head. "Seen it though…Boris could sink to a very brutal level…but even then it was never on purpose…just every now and then a kid would take one too many beatings…fall…not get up…none of them were set out to be killed…not…not like this…and that _was_ hard…this will be a nightmare. An entire series of them for a long time to come." Max set down the glass before his shaking hands could drop it, leaning against the counter and looking out the window at the seemingly innocent sun hiding behind a cloud. It burned his eyes. He didn't know how long he had. A few weeks or months. A few days. Would it be tomorrow? It was horrifying to think that in an unknown amount of time an unknown amount of people…of his _friends_…including himself…could be killers…murderers…it would be in self-defence…the good of the world…but blood would be on their hands.

It's funny how…when under stress the mind comes up with the strangest memories. Vaguely he remembered so many murder mysteries and crime shows; Kenny enjoyed them and he didn't think them too bad. Would he become like those criminals? Finding a lie to cover the evidence? Eventually cornered into spilling everything in a tiny room being watching like a tiny bug? He thought briefly of some show he'd watched. He couldn't remember it. There was a boat maybe? An old fat French guy with a moustache and the woman had said something before killing herself and partner. What had it been?

"_It's so frightfully easy…to take a life."_

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**Gliitch: **BELGIAN! *ahem* Yeah so…very sinister…I kinda wanted to emphasise the fact that this isn't gonna be all fun and games. A lot of the time, even with people thrown into the world of death people don't seem to bat an eyelid in most stories. I've seen people who run like, flower stalls suddenly be sucked into an organisation for some reason…I don't know maybe the flowers have magic petals…and then start butchering people so I just wanted to make it clear that this _is_ what is going to happen and they _are_ going to think about it.

**Tala:** shouldn't it have a different rating?

**Gliitch:** I haven't decided how graphic things are going to be…

**Tala:** oh…where's Megsy?

**Gliitch:** gone forever

**Tala:**__oh things are just so goddamn cheerful for you right now


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